Those Who Love Monsters
by gabriel blessing
Summary: Those who fight monsters must look to themselves that they not become monsters, for when you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back into you. For Zenkichi, his response to monsters was always a little different.
1. Chapter 1

Those Who Love Monsters...

Chapter One

_Author's Notes: For those of you wondering just why the heck I'm not working on In Flight right now, go ahead and skip to the end for the extra author's notes. For those of you actually reading the story, feel free to continue._

I woke up alone. For a few brief moments, I could do nothing but blink my eyes, trying to focus them past the bleariness which always seemed present whenever I stopped sleeping. It was only after I had cleared my eyes enough to make out the room that I realized that it was dark out.

I woke up alone, in the dark, and I couldn't even tell that there was no light until I had the chance to really think about it. I suppose that said more about my present state then I really wanted to think about.

It was only after I had a few moments to really concentrate that the aching in my skull made itself known. I don't know who was responsible for the pounding in my head, but whoever it was really had gone all out to make it the most uncomfortable process possible. They must have spent decades in some twisted mad scientist lab developing microscopic midgets that could be inserted into sleeping people's ears, and probably twice as long to equip them with jack hammers, but the end results spoke for themselves. I felt like my brain was being torn apart with all the efficiency of a wrecking crew.

When I tried to move my arm to press it to my pounding forehead I quickly realized that the state the rest of my body was in made my head look like it was untouched.

God. What the hell had happened to me?

It was the process of nearly five minutes before I managed to recall the events leading to me waking up in my present state of agony, in what appeared to be the school infirmary, but once I recalled the facts I didn't even bother to suppress the sigh.

Oh yeah. Medaka was what had happened to me. I guess that explained why everything hurt.

"Well, Zenkichi," a voice to my side finally alerted me to the fact that I wasn't alone. "Look whose up! How you feeling, sleeping beauty?"

Despite the teasing tone and rude phrasing, I let myself relax at the familiar presence. Managing to move my head enough I was able to take in my bedside visitor's shape: short hair with a curling bang, bright red cheeks like something found in a kid's anime, a body that looked like it belonged in a preschool rather than a high school, and what appeared to be a half empty bucket of fried chicken. Even as I managed to focus on her, she was in the process of tossing a picked clean bone over her shoulder with one hand as the other one reached in for a new piece.

My eyes traced the discarded bone as it flew through the air, traveling nearly twenty feet before it landed perfectly dead center on top of a pile of similar bones nearly two and a half feet high. The black plastic rim peeking out at points from midway up the pile revealed that at one point the pile had most likely been contained within a standard garbage can, the kind that can be found in offices all over the world, much less the school. Unfortunately the can hadn't been big enough to fully contain the sheer mass of discarded food which now surrounded it. Perched beside it was a tower reaching nearly halfway up to the ceiling formed of discarded buckets identical to the one the girl was eating out of at the moment.

"Geez, Shiranui," I muttered, taking in the signs of the truly massive amounts of evidence to the binge eating the pixie like girl in front of me had indulged in. "How long have I been out?"

"Well," my best friend, Shiranui Hasode, began, drawling out the words in between savage bites of the chicken leg she was gnawing on. "I've had enough time for about thirty eight of these jumbo KFC buckets, if that tells you anything." Despite her childish appearance, the grin on Shiranui's face better qualified as that of a leer, an expression that looked distinctly out of place on someone with such an innocent looking body.

"So, what, about two hours?" my guess came out dry. Shiranui had once boasted that she liked to go through two liters of ramen a day. Despite the absurd nature of her claim it fell short of her actual capabilities when it came to her ability to pack away the dish: her record was literally five gallons in seventy two minutes.

I had even measured the meals and timed her while she ate just to make sure what I was seeing was real.

"Heheh," Shiranui chuckled, the voice sounding vaguely ominous as I began to overcome the pain coursing through my body. Now that I was awake it was already beginning to diminish enough for me to move around, so I started the harsh process of propping myself up on my elbows. Eventually, I hoped to even regain ambulatory status. "Well, to be fair, I only showed up after all your well wishers and hanger-on's had already cleared out. They seemed to think that you'd be awake earlier, but since the sun was still up I figured I had enough time."

"Time for what?" I asked, before glancing down at my body and pausing. "You built me a coffin?" I demanded, needing to be absolutely certain of what I was seeing before I reacted properly.

Though my back rested on the semi softness of an infirmary bed and was covered by clean white linen, at some point while I was unconscious it looked as though Shiranui had managed somehow nail together enough random planks of wood over my unconscious body to cover me from the waist down and circle the rest of me. With the distinctly angular shape of the construction, the end result was as though I were a corpse being displayed at a wake.

"Yup!" Shiranui confirmed, beaming an innocent smile at me before opening her mouth and sinking her too white teeth down on yet another piece of chicken meat. Grinding down, she yanked the breast piece she was currently devouring away, sending flakes of meat and skin spraying away from her. "I just couldn't resist!"

I sighed, letting myself fall backwards onto the bed and accidently bumping my head on the rim of my apparent resting place. "You have to be the worst best friend in the history of best friends. Ever," I told her, shaking my head as I did so. "Where the hell did you even find enough plywood to put this together?"

"Oh! Praise me! Praise me more!" Shiranui chirped, wiggling happily in her chair. She kicked her feet like a kid, an image which was only enhanced due to the fact that there was nearly half a foot between her shoes and the floor. Even as she giggled, her eating never stopped. It was almost relaxing, actually. At some point in the past I had just grown so used to the sound of Shiranui glutting herself that it was like listening to waves at the ocean; a soothing repetitive sound which just lulled the listener into a relaxed state.

"So seriously," I began, deciding to ignore the eccentricities of my unusual friend. "How long was I out? The last thing I remember is…" I trailed off, and just like that the light mood I had found myself in deserted me.

The last thing I remember was Medaka, walking away, right after she had put me half way through a wall. Medaka Kurokami, the student council president, the only friend I had who had seniority over the one beside me. Medaka Kurokami, the girl who was never wrong, who never failed, who always succeeded. Medaka Kurokami, who I had known for thirteen years, who I had always been with, who I had always supported, albeit grudgingly.

Medaka Kurokami, the girl I loved.

Medaka Kurokami, the girl who had today decided that none of our history mattered and had tossed me aside. The only second thought she had was after I had confronted her about it, and even then the thought was to reclassify me as an enemy.

The Medaka Kurokami who had then beat me, and decided I wasn't even worth being thought of as a foe.

"Well," Shiranui drawled, her teeth white in the dark, bits of flesh showing black as she chewed. "Looks like you remembered how you got here."

"Oh?" I choked out, gritting my teeth as I recalled the circumstances behind my latest enforced bed rest. "What gave it away?"

"Your eyes," Shiranui said simply, her smile vanishing, her gaze intent. "They just turned red."

"How can you tell?" I asked, as I recalled how it was that I came to be in my current predicament. "It's pitch black in here." Despite how well I could see, I was still able to tell what the conditions were. There were no lights on, it was well after sundown, and the curtains were drawn. Not even starlight could get into the sealed room now. There wasn't even light coming from beneath the cracks in the door frame. Despite that, I could see perfectly.

In retrospect, it made the unnervingly accurate throws Shiranui was using to dispose of the bones even more impressive.

"Well," my best friend began, leaning back in her chair, the picture of ease. "The glowing was a dead giveaway."

"I thought I had gotten that under control," I muttered. I shifted again, more a test to see how much it still hurt to move, and found the pain greatly reduced. I could feel bandages over a great deal of my body, bandages which once no doubt held closed what must have been the truly grievous wounds that Medaka had bestowed upon me. I wondered just how'd they look underneath if I took them off now. Would there be nothing underneath the blood stained linen besides undamaged flesh, or would there still be lingering signs of the injuries I once had?

There had been a time when I wouldn't be so sure that my wounds would be gone. A time when I hadn't been able to see as well in the dark as I did in the light. A time when my eyes didn't turn red and glow whenever I was angry.

That time was nearly two and a half years ago by now. It was a time before I had been walking alone in a park. It was the time before I had come face to face with a beautiful monster.

Today had started off so normally too. I had come to school, gone to classes, and then gone to participate in Student Council business. It had been months since the Student Council had stopped the Flask Plan, the shady medical research that was being performed here in the name of creating the perfect human. It had been weeks since the council had finally nullified the threat of the class Minus Thirteen. Today was supposed to be nothing more than a training exercise that Medaka had come up with as a means to help her train her successors in an attempt to stop the Not Equal, the group responsible for the experimentation being done here, from being able to simply wait us out before they reinitialized their unethical experiments.

And then it had all gone to hell because I couldn't figure out a stupid riddle that Medaka had come up with.

That was it: a riddle. While the others had gone on ahead, I had been determined to figure it out on my own merits. I had been at it for hours, and even by the time the others had already finished the exercise in general, I still couldn't make heads or tails of the stupid thing.

And because I couldn't figure it out, despite thirteen years of companionship, my oldest friend had written me off completely. It was after that while I had been sitting there, trying to figure out just what had happened, just why I was suddenly being discarded, that Najimi Ajimu, the one known as Anshin'in, the 'Relief Attendent', the leader of Not Equal, swept in to offer me a deal with the devil.

And so far as just about everyone thinks at this point, I had accepted. The truth, though, was a little more complicated than that.

"She didn't even try to stop me," I murmured, recalling the confrontation between Medaka and I. The final scene ran through my head, blurry and skipping at spots like an old movie being displayed on a broken projector. I had told Anshin'in that I would become Medaka's enemy, and then had gone to confront my oldest friend. I don't know why I did something so idiotic.

No. Maybe I did know why. I had hoped she would stop me, that Medaka would try to keep me from going. She had did just that once before, when Naze-sempai had been about to join the Minus 13. I had done the same for her once for that matter. During the time when we invaded the Flask plan and Medaka had been brain washed into being Medaka II by Miyakonojou I had done everything I could, however hopeless it looked, to try and help her.

And instead of doing the same for me, she had smiled. She had actually smiled! She had been excited. She had actually praised me, told me that she had always hoped I would someday be her enemy.

Anshin'in had been right when she told me that Medaka preferred her enemies to her allies. I hadn't been as important to Medaka as Naze, who was her sister and former foe.

I hadn't been as important to Medaka as she had been to me.

"Wow!" Shiranui chirped, somehow whistling despite the fact that both her cheeks were bulging like a chipmunk's with all the food she had crammed into them. "You're really lighting up now!"

"Sorry," I muttered, screwing my eyes shut and trying to regain my calm. I didn't know just what I was feeling now. Was it disappointment? Anger? Despair? Just how should I feel after realizing that the person I had spent nearly my entire life with, who I had fought beside, cried beside, laughed beside, dreamed beside, whom I had done everything with, didn't care for me the same way I did for her?

It was only after a few deep breaths that I realized Shiranui was up to something again. Opening my eyes I looked down, and once more had to pause and take a deep breath to give myself time to react.

"Shiranui," I began. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Well there's no point in you being in a coffin if you don't have your arms right!" the tiny high schooler crowed as she shifted my other arm until they were crossed over my chest like the way some corpses were displayed during wakes. With a long suffering growl I uncrossed my arms and took a quick swing at the little imp. Laughing, Shiranui dodged the halfhearted attack easily, pirouetting out of the way while cradling the now mostly empty bucket of chicken in her arms like a baby.

"Do you ever give it a rest?" I demanded of her peevishly. Despite my tone I couldn't keep a small grin from forming at out interaction. No matter what the circumstances, no matter what madness might come, Shiranui was always Shiranui; childish, impetuous, carelessly cruel, and indifferently callous.

And somehow despite all that, she was still my best friend.

"Nope!" Shiranui sang as she continued to spin before bumping into the chair she had been sitting on accidently. Even if she was somehow managing to figure out where things in the room were, it was still pitch black in the nurse's office. Serves her right for the cheap pranks.

As she stumbled and fell onto her backside, I began to work my way out of the makeshift coffin she had put me in. Even if my body had been in agony only a few minutes ago, I could already feel the pain receding as I began to heal. From long experience I could already imagine the slightly red haze forming around the wounds as the blood that was leaking out dissolved slowly into the air, reappearing within my body as though it had never left. It wasn't the normal way that people healed, but I hadn't been normal for a long time now, so after making sure that the phenomenon wasn't exposed I ignored it and simply let it do its work.

"Did anything happen while I was unconscious?" I asked my friend as she righted herself. It only took me a few seconds to kick the top of the prank casket off.

"Well," Shiranui drawled again, not even bothering to get up from the floor and instead just crossing her legs and getting comfortable as she took the last piece of chicken and tore a chunk of it out. "There was someone sitting here for a while, a representative from Anshin'in named Kamome Tsurubami who was supposed to start your training when you woke up, but when you just kept sleeping he eventually left."

"It's not my fault," I grumbled defensively as I made excuses for how long I was out. "You know how hard it is for me to get up when the sun is still up." Even if I could bear the light, it still made me nervous to be outside during the day. Not to mention that I still had faint nocturnal impulses leftover from before which just made me naturally more active at night. "And who is this Tsurubami guy? I've never heard of him before."

"Just another one of the Flask Plan's failures," Shiranui shrugged, tossing the empty bucket behind her so that it landed perfectly on the tower she had already built. "It was probably just Anshin'in trying to take advantage of your recent beating to start her experimenting."

"You know anything about him?" I asked, finally regaining my feet and stretching as I did so. Judging from the way Shiranui shifted she realized I was finally standing, though she apparently couldn't tell for sure. I made my way across the room to flick on the light switch as I spoke. "Like why Anshin'in sent him?"

"I know plenty about that wannabe 'Main Character'," Shiranui puffed her grade school chest up proudly, blinking as the lights came on. "But if Anshin'in was hoping that he'd be enough to push you up to the standards of the 'Monster Princess' then she was probably just toying with you in the first place."

'Monster Princess' was Shiranui's favorite nickname for Medaka Kurokami. Normally when she used it, it was with a tone of humor. This time though, Shiranui spoke in a more condescending tone.

"Of course," she continued, her tone still sounding sly, but this time touched with a more serious note that she rarely used with anyone but me. "If she thought that you were actually going to be using the Flask Plan, then I suppose that says something about just how all knowing she really is."

For a moment, I was silent, settling myself so I could sit on the corner of the nurse's desk. Absentmindedly, I began to unroll the now clean bandages from around my head and arms. Even the dried blood which had once stained them was gone now.

"She didn't know," I finally murmured. "I had thought she was just being sly, or maybe trying to save it for blackmail. But the truth was Anshin'in really just didn't know."

It should have been something outrageous, for a ridiculous entity like Anshin'in to not know the secret I had kept for two and a half years. Then again, it wasn't like anyone else ever knew. Even Medaka, who had been with me right before the incident and was with me again right afterwards, had never once even suspected what had happened to me. There were only three people, all of them in this room at this very moment for that matter, in the city who knew the truth:

That two and half years ago, during the summer break between my first and second year of middle school, I had come across a beautiful monster in a dark park, and she had eaten me alive.

"Well now," Shiranui smirked though her voice was serious. "That changes things quite a bit, doesn't it?"

I made no reply to the leading question, though she looked like she was honestly expecting me to make some kind of response. The implications that I really had escaped all notice, that despite the scrutiny, the injuries, and all the outrageous feats I had performed since I had come to Hakoniwa Academy and been swept up into the dark underbelly of human experimentation that was going on within it, was staggering.

Was I really that unnoticeable? It wasn't like I had even tried very hard to cover it up. I had been stabbed a half a dozen times, been injected with enough snake venom to kill a herd of horses, had so many of my bones broken time and time again, been cut in just about every way conceivable and still there was no one here who considered me anything more than just a relatively interesting 'normal'.

The only value I held to anyone here at the academy was how I related to Medaka.

"So what are you going to do, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi?" Shiranui asked, her eyes fixed on me, her gaze hungry. It was easy to forget due to her childish appearance, but deep down inside, well, maybe not that deep at all, Shiranui Hansode was a very frightening person.

"About what?" I asked, my gaze fixed on the floor in front of me. I already knew what she was referring to, and said it more to rile the girl up then because I needed clarification. Shiranui grinned at my facetiousness.

"About Medaka, Anshin'in, and the whole mess you've managed to get yourself into," she elaborated, letting my teasing slide with surprising generosity.

"About Medaka and this mess?" I repeated, letting loose a sigh as I did so. "I have no idea." I really didn't. It was too soon, too many revelations too quickly. I wasn't a superhuman like so many of the rest of my friends. I wasn't a 'special', a person whose abilities bordered on the superhuman, or an 'abnormality', a person who apparently took a running jump right over the same border. I wasn't even a 'minus', a person so twisted that they might as well be 'abnormal' themselves. Most of those would have been able to instantly take in all the new information and come to a quick and meaningful conclusion.

Me, I needed some time to sort my thoughts out first.

"And about Anshin'in?" Shiranui, pressed, appearing in my vision as she tucked her head directly into my line of sight without a second thought. My eyes narrowed.

"Regardless of how it all turned out, this situation is all her fault," I growled, my teeth gritting. "She was the one who arranged it, who destroyed my life without a second thought, and then tried to bend me to her will in order to complete her sick experiments." I had little doubt that my eyes were red again, even if I hadn't been able to see them reflecting off of Shiranui's eager gaze. "She, above all else, is now my enemy."

I straightened, meeting Shiranui's expectant leer with a tight pressed smile.

"I'm going to destroy her, of course."

*Scene Break*

I didn't go home that night. I didn't want to worry my mother. I had enough distrubing experiences for one day after all.

Sometimes people told me that if my mother looked so young at her age, it was a good thing for me. After all, I'd probably still look that youthful even when I was older. Frankly, I think they had no idea what they were talking about. Not only did my mom look just about as young as Shiranui did, despite being forty two, but my mother also acted about the same age as she looked.

Especially when waking me up. I'm pretty sure taking a running jump from the door, landing on my sleeping body feet first, and then pounding me with the pillow stolen from under my head until I had to wake up to fight her off was the kind of thing a bratty younger sister would do, not a mother.

Of course, considering how hard it was for me to wake up sometimes it was probably the only process she had found over the years guaranteed to get me up in time for me to make it to school.

Whatever the case was, I didn't want the kind of atmosphere that was waiting for me at my actual house. The school had most likely already called her to inform her that I was injured, and how I was injured as well. My mother adored Medaka like a second child, and the interrogation I would receive over why we were fighting wasn't the kind of thing I felt I could bear at the moment.

Instead, I went to a place which at times felt even more like my real home then the place where my family lived.

It was a wreck of a building that at one point or another had been a cram school. There was a story behind it being abandoned, something about how a more popular and efficient school had forced this old one out of business, but I had never really cared to look up the details. At four stories high, this wreck looked as though a stiff breeze would knock it over. It was so old that vegetation had grown throughout it, a twisted and gnarled tree having somehow managed to grow out of the top floor and through the wrecked roof to peek its stubby vegetation through the top. Abandoned construction equipment littered the outside, stairways within had collapsed, and walls had crumbled.

Despite that, the moment I stepped into the labyrinth that wreckage had made the inside, I felt like I had come home. This was the place where I had made my headquarters for the last year and a half as I had worked my somewhat irregular part time job. It was the place where before I had worked off my debt to my savior. And before that, it was the place where I had been reborn as I was now.

Dark halls, filled with the scent of must and rot, where broken concrete and rusted rebar cluttered, this was a place where blood washed away blood, and where blood would always tell.

This was a place for spoiled goods.

My trip to the fourth floor was quiet except for the sounds where my movements disturbed some of the rubble. I had long since learned the secret pathways to move around in here, the ways which were open and which were blocked and couldn't be taken. It wasn't until I had nearly reached my destination that a voice penetrated my mind, a voice which wasn't a noise properly but simply words which formed directly into my thoughts.

_Verily, my servant. Thy heart is in great turmoil._

"Yeah," I muttered, keeping my answer brief. I never felt any need to go into detail when answering the speaker. I didn't need to. More so then Medaka, who had known me for thirteen years, or even Shiranui, who I could unreservedly claim as my best friend, this speaker was the one who truly knew me best in all the world.

"Wouldst thou care to speak with me, servant?" the voice continued, and this time it was a physical thing. I didn't need to look behind me to know what I would see.

Rising from the shadow cast behind me by a moonlit window like a swimmer from a pool ascended a girl. She looked no more than eight years old, wearing a simple dress and flight cap perched jauntily on her head, with long blond hair flowing behind her. She looked small and fragile, and despite her formal and archaic speaking method her voice was well suited to her appearance. She spoke easily, her tone and volume conversational despite the silence she had interrupted or the oppressive darkness of the surroundings.

Her name now is Shinobu Oshino, but it hadn't always been that way. Once, before she had met me she had another name: The Iron-blooded, Hot-blooded, Cold-blooded vampire. The Kai Killer.

Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade.

Once a five hundred year old vampire, a woman so beautiful she could turn the head of any man and a creature so powerful that none could stand against her face to face.

She was the monster who had killed me.

Now she was just a shadow of her former self, merely a fragment of what she once had been.

The ruins of a wondrous monster. The pomace of a beautiful demon.

"She called me her enemy, Shinobu," I told her, not needing to elaborate any more than that. I collapsed backwards, letting myself fall bonelessly onto the collection of desks arranged in the corner to make a makeshift bed. I had spent many nights here, and had adopted the habit of the one who had helped introduce me into the world of the Kai years ago.

The Kai: the oddities, creatures of spirit and myth, legends and rumors. Two and a half years ago I had met my first one in the then Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade, a vampire. It had been the opening act of the hellish spring break between my first and second year of middle school, a time marked with bloodshed and battle, hope and heartbreak, and then ended with all encompassing unhappiness for everyone involved. Even after that I had found myself entrenched in a world of spirits and demons; to be touched even once by the Kai was to be marked by them. Most people could go their entire lives never meeting one, but once they had then the oddities would continuously find them.

It might have been rough at the start, but as time passed and I encountered more and more of the creatures which inspired countless myths and legends I had grown familiar enough with them to be able to deal with most encounters I might make. I had really thought I was gaining back control of my life, that I was learning how to deal with strange happenings while still fitting into normal life.

Then I started attending Hakoniwa Academy and even the normality I had found with other humans was denied me.

"Hmm," Shinobu muttered, putting both hands on her hip as she chewed delicately on her bottom lip. "I have warned thee in the past, my subordinate. That child wouldst cause thee naught but trouble as a substitute master."

"I'd always known that," I muttered, closing my eyes as I sighed. Really, being with Medaka had always been a source of conflict for me. Before learning about abnormalities and specials, before I learned that humanity wasn't as simple as I had always assumed, I had suspected Medaka to be influenced by the Kai due to the sheer number of irregularities that surrounded her. Impossibly intelligent, unnaturally fit, and possessing a personality which could cause even the most contrary of people to admire her, Medaka had always had an inhuman quality to her.

"Then why doest this time trouble thee so?" Shinobu asked, her voice open and curious. A stirring noise caused me to open one eye so I could see what it was the young looking vampire was doing.

Mindless of the rubble around her despite her barefoot appearance Shinobu crossed the room before planting her hands on the desks I was laying on. The edge of the desk came up to about shoulder height on the small girl, but despite the height difference she pushed herself up easily, see-sawing until she could get her feet up on the top. She resumed a standing position, hands once more on her hips as she looked down at me imperiously. On her old form, her adult form, her expression could have been called 'stern' or even 'imposing'. On the childish body, beneath that ridiculous flight cap, it came off only as 'petulant', though it might even reach as far as 'precocious'.

"She was so happy," I murmured, closing my eyes again and letting the familiar presence of the once vampire sooth me. "Happy. That I would be opposing her."

"Indeed," I could imagine even with my eyes closed the imperious nod that Shinobu would be giving me. I heard her shift and felt her small foot brush against my stomach as she stepped over me without a second thought. Now straddling me, I could even imagine the way her head would tilt to the side in curiosity. "Should thou not be satisfied? Is it not a fitting thing for a subordinate to be proud of having pleased her master?"

It was moments like these that helped drive in the difference between the appearance of the thing standing above me and the truth of its nature. Shinobu did not think in terms of friends or comrades. She thought instead in terms of subordination, perceiving only the interaction between what she recognized as superior/inferior relationships.

"Now if only thou wouldst give me the same respect," she continued, the petulant mutter the only warning that came before she promptly sat down hard on my stomach, forcing a startled cough out of me. I took that as a sign of dissatisfaction; even if Shinobu thought of the relationship between Medaka and I as master and subordinate, that didn't mean she liked Medaka. In Shinobu's eyes the only master I should have was herself.

I couldn't help but wonder if I should be worried that two out of the three most important women in my life couldn't stand the third. Or that two of them seemed to think of themselves firmly as the 'master' in their relationship with me. Well, at least in Shinobu's case there was a logical reason for it.

"Thirteen years," I muttered after I got my wind back from Shinobu's punitive seating. "Thirteen years I stood beside her, helped her, and supported her. Thirteen years I was her friend. And in the end, it didn't matter to her at all." It was just as Anshin'in had said: in the end, given a choice Medaka would treasure her enemies more than her allies.

"Ah," Shinobu murmured, shifting where she sat on my stomach before apparently finding a more comfortable position. "Upon reflection I have come to understand thy discomfort," she announced. "In thy eyes, such joy is naught but betrayal, is it not?"

It said something that Shinobu, a five hundred year old vampire whom had long since completely divorced herself from the logic of humanity, was able to figure out why this situation was troubling me whereas Medaka, a member of the human race nearly the exact same age as me, could not.

I nodded, not able to speak after having heard my situation summed up so briefly. I kept my eyes closed, forcing the lids shut tight. I wasn't an abnormal, or a special. I didn't have any immense talent or superior ability. I was a normal human, or I was until I had met Shinobu and even then I had managed to regain enough of my humanity to apparently fool a two hundred year old manipulator like Anshin'in. I got discouraged like a normal human, got hurt like a normal human, gave up like a normal human.

Unfortunately though, I didn't cry like a normal human. The fluid welling up in my eyes wasn't tears; it was blood.

Yet another sign, I suppose, of the legacy that Shinobu had left me.

The girl sitting on me was silent for a moment, no doubt taking in the trails of blood I was desperately trying to suppress. Finally, I felt her shift as she lay down on top of me, sprawling over me like a cat would. I shifted, suppressing a grunt of surprise as I felt her breath on my throat, one of her tiny hands pulling back on the collar of my student council member uniform. A moment later I felt her fangs, two tiny pinpricks as they sank into my neck and found my veins.

After the thing above me had turned me into a vampire, during the course of me trying to regain my humanity, I had left her greatly diminished. Having lost most of her power, her form, and much of her personality during the process of returning me from vampire back to human, there had been a time when Shinobu was barely capable of moving. It was months before she could speak, though it had been even more months before she would speak to me directly. She had been a shadowed existence, a piteous fragment capable only of sustaining her continued pseudo-life by drinking my blood.

Before she would have to wait here in this broken down building, huddled in a corner waiting for me to come visit her so she could take the necessary sustenance to survive another day. It was a duty I had performed devoutly, never once letting myself miss a day. It was my fault, after all, that she had found herself in that condition. It was my responsibility to make sure that she could survive.

I had made her a promise then: If tomorrow you die my life will last till tomorrow; if today you live, then I too will live on. It was an oath I intended to keep.

That had changed, over time. Eventually she had regained enough of her presence to regain some of her powers. She had instead taken to living in my shadow instead, submerging herself within the shade I cast on the ground. It was a more intimate, deeper connection then even drinking my blood had provided. While in my shadow my very presence was enough to sustain her, and she could feel my thoughts, senses, and emotions, and even let me feel some of hers. It was the way she had communicated with me before she had come out of my shadow earlier.

Despite that that new connection, there were still times when Shinobu drank from me directly. Times when I needed more of the vampiric legacy she had left me, access to the power that had been present in my undead frame. The more she drank from me, the less human I was, though unless she drained me dry completely I would always return to my pseudo human state. There had been more than a few encounters with other kais where this method was the only way to boost my healing enough for me to survive the encounter. Lately, there had been instances where it was other humans who had left me needing higher levels of regeneration then were normally present in my mostly human state.

The only other times when Shinobu bit me were the times when she was trying to comfort me. Perhaps it was a legacy of the time when I knew that my blood was the only thing allowing the frail looking girl-thing clinging to me to survive. Times when whatever else was going on in my life, I knew that I was doing at least this one thing which was worthwhile.

Maybe I was just a sick freak, but the feeling of my blood being pulled from my veins via direct oral suction was comforting to me.

With a satisfied sound Shinobu pulled her teeth out of me, letting loose a distinctly unfeminine belch as she did so. She hadn't taken much, only enough to push me to about fifteen percent vampire, but even that much left a noticeable change in me. The lingering aches from my beating earlier today began to vanish with measurable speed, the pain literally draining away from me.

"So what shall thou do now, my subordinate?" Shinobu asked, breaking the silence that had settled in the ruined classroom during her feeding as she nestled down, laying down on top of me with a graceless inelegance that I would expect out of a child the actual age of her appearance.

"I don't know," I admitted, unashamed to acknowledge my indecisiveness in front of the tiny vampire lying on top of me. I never felt like I had to have a plan, or like I couldn't show weakness to Shinobu. No, it was more like when I was with her things that other would see as weakness were simply not acknowledged by her.

"Hmph," she grunted, and I opened my eyes to see her giving me a lidded glare. "I was not speaking of thy difficulties with that imposter," she scolded me, pouting in a style that would have looked a great deal more intimidating on an older body. "I was speaking of thy conflict with thou other foe; the presumptuous one whom so arrogantly declares herself to be above her station."

"Anshin'in," I supplied the name, my body tensing as I did so. Even more so then with Medaka, I could tell the immense distaste, even active hostility that Shinobu felt for the supposed 'non-human'. It was in fact a distaste I shared, even before the self absorbed twit had managed to manipulate me and earned my active anger.

Really. To tell everyone that she was apparently so powerful that she no longer even considered herself human. To make such a claim to ME of all people, boasting of how her supposed quadrillion skills and special abilities somehow elevated her to a position of near godhood.

I had met gods before. I had even killed a few of them when they got out of hand. As I had to do a few times with some spirits, more than a few ghosts, and enough demons to probably qualify me as a master exorcist.

Apparently common sense was no requirement for having that many abilities. Or if it was, survival instincts apparently weren't rated high enough to be included.

There was a time in the past when I might have been willing to let the insult go. Sure, she had basically destroyed my life, inserting her peons skillfully into a position to dispose of me in the eyes of my oldest friend. Yeah, she had shown up at just the right time to take advantage of my state of mine and goad me into confronting Medaka. Hell, it was probably my fault that the confrontation had ended the way it did. If I had waited a bit more to compose myself, if I had spoken my true feelings to my oldest friend, if I had been more careful then perhaps Medaka wouldn't have gleefully leapt on the provided excuse to claim me as her enemy.

There was a time in my life when I would have been more forgiving, more willing to take the high road and simply move on, ignoring the insult and injury alike and been the better person.

Unfortunately that time had passed, probably no more than just a few months ago.

"I'm going to kill her," I said bluntly, answering Shinobu's intent gaze. The childish looking vampire gave me a searching look, and then broke out into a beaming smile that looked more suited on a girl her apparent age at a birthday party after having received the pony she always wanted.

"Excellent, my subordinate," she crowded, actually wiggling in happiness at my declaration. "Indeed, there is only so much insult that thou may allow slip before thy enemies shall begin to gather en masse. Make certain that thou use such a chance to give forth a stern chastisement!"

Two and a half years ago, I would never have expected that I would ever deliberately plot another's death. It would have seemed like a direct contradiction to my desperate hope to regain my lost humanity.

Now though, after so many battles, my definition of acceptable violence within human parameters had been rather forcefully rewritten.

*Scene Break*

It wasn't until three days later that I returned to Hakoniwa Academy. I hadn't meant to make a big deal of it, but the moment I crossed the academy gates a number of students made surprised noises, and more than a few of them just ran off. I paused, trying to make sense of the peculiar reaction, before I realized that the last time I had been at school my confrontation with Medaka had probably ended up being pretty well known.

I sighed, and committed myself to having to be the center of attention for what came next. I had honestly intended it to take place somewhere a little less public.

Sure enough, already gathered at the gate were a number of the more noticeable students of Hakoniwa Academy. I caught sight of Myouri Unzen, the head of the Public Morals Committee through a window on the third story. Though only ten years old, he had already proven himself to be a ruthless misanthrope and violently committed to enforcing the Academy rules. It would make sense that he would have decided to keep an eye on what promised to be a violent confrontation.

A floor below I could make out Nekomi Nabeshima, the Queen of Fouls herself. Even if she wasn't interested in getting involved with the crazy shenanigans that tended to happen at Hakoniwa herself she still tended to keep an eye on the noticeable events if for no other reason than to amuse herself.

Outside, hanging around the corner of the main building were two faces which I had been in conflict with before: Gagamaru Chougasaki and Shibuki Shibushi, the two head enforcers of Class Minus Thirteen. If they were here then the minus faction of Hakoniwa would no doubt be behind them as well.

All around in various out of the way places I could make out other important faces: members of various committees, participants in the Flask Plan, people who have in the past made use of the School council to help solve their problems.

At the very front of the building two noticeable groups had formed.

The first was none other than the Student Council itself. Medaka Kurokami, the President, looked almost eager to see me, her eyes wide with an expression I could easily identify as anticipation. Flanked on either side of her were Misogi Kumagawa, the former head of Class Minus Thirteen and current Vice-President, and Kouki Akune, the former Prince of the Judo Club and current Secretary. Standing with them but a little to the side was Mogana Kikaijima, former ace of the Swim Club and current Treasurer. Though Kumagawa was smiling in the same eerie way he always did, Akune looked much more serious than he normally did, and Kikaijima looked downright unhappy with the way things had turned out.

Standing opposite them was a collection of people every bit as diverse but not bearing any convenient group classification. The first was Youka Naze, formerly Kujira Kurokami, Medaka's older sister and former member of the Flask Plan. Next was Kei Munakata, another former member of the Flask, reformed pseudo-impulsive killer, and a person I considered one of my friends. After that was Maguro Kurokami, the last of the Kurokami siblings, the eldest brother, and an abnormal known both for his amazing ability to shape people and his amazing perversity. The penultimate member of the group was Mukae Emukae, a reformed minus and reformed yandere of previously epic proportions with a crush on me that was downright unnerving at times. The final person present, standing far closer to the door and a little separate from the rest of the group was none other than Shiranui, busy munching on what was no doubt the seventh or eighth breakfast she had today.

Those were the ones who would no doubt be the core of my supporters in a confrontation between myself and Medaka.

I wasn't certain whether I found the show of support or interest from so many in the school to be comforting or unnerving.

"At last!" Medaka proclaimed, nearly fidgeting with excitement as I approached the group. "I was beginning to worry when you didn't show up, Zenkichi. I hope whatever secret training you went through these last few days was enough!"

"Now, now, Medaka-chan," Maguro cut in, his voice soothing as he ran a practiced eye over me. Maguro had made a fortune as a professional trainer, a person whose ability to develop the abilities of his clients was internationally famous. He had helped me several times in the past to get ready for various conflicts. "I'm sure there will be time for that later." His eyes flicked almost absentmindedly to his youngest sister, before it focused on me once more. "Zenkichi-kun," he began, narrowing his eyes as he studied me. "Where have you been?"

I wasn't certain what he was looking for, or what it was he found, but his expression straddled the line between confused and worried.

"Nowhere in particular," I assured him nonchalantly. "Medaka-chan," I began, turning to face my oldest friend. "There's something I need to say to you."

"Yes," Medaka grinned, her body pose firm though her facial expression was like a mix of bloodlust and exaltation. It was a look reminiscent of the time she had her final confrontation with Kumagawa, where she had declared that her anticipation for their final battle had felt like three hundred million years.

She was no doubt expecting an exclamation of war, a declaration of intent.

Instead, I bowed deeply, keeping my back straight as I did so. "I, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi, apologize deeply for the words I spoke when last we met," I intoned formally. "My actions were hasty, and upon further reflection I retract them."

I straightened to meet the stunned stares of everyone present. They were receiving their declaration of intent, but it wasn't the one they were expecting at all. This was one of absolute surrender.

"In order to atone for my ill thought of actions," I continued, "I will be formally distancing myself from the Flask Plan directly, and from Anshin'in-san indirectly. I assure you I will make no other move against you. In order to properly apologize, I will also formally announce my retirement from the Student Council, and will return these immediately."

I stretched out my hand, indicating the black student council uniform that I had carefully pressed, topped by the armband announcing the position of General Affairs Manager. For the first time I saw many eyes flick down to take in normal white uniform that students not affiliated with any of the committees wore. When no one moved for a few long seconds, I held it out closer to Medaka. Almost like a reflex, she held her own hands out to accept it, though her movements were rather stiff.

"What is this, Zenkichi?" she asked, her voice wavering between confused and angry.

"It's just what it looks like, Medaka-chan," I told her. "You were right. Let's forget about our fight. It really is more fitting for me to be under your protection."

With that, I took a step back, bowed politely, and then went in through the door to the school proper.

I made it only a few steps before what could most accurately be called pandemonium broke out behind me. Voices echoing with surprise, shock, disappointment, and more than a few with anger in them erupted behind me. Ignoring them, I headed towards my first class of the day.

"Well," a much calmer voice spoke up from beside me as I made my way through the mostly empty hallway, "That was an interesting first move."

I glanced down, and discovered that to my surprise Shiranui had made use of the same distraction I had to escape the notice of my group of supporters and keep pace beside me.

"When the hell did you get here?" I asked, my tone more bemused than anything else as I watched her rip open the wrapper of a packaged egg sandwich with her teeth, before spitting the plastic to the side and tearing into the food itself with an almost animalistic motion. "And what did you mean by 'first move'?"

"Oh? Trying to be sly with me, Zenkichi?" Shiranui narrowed her eyes, pulling herself upright as much as her tiny stature could allow so she could glare down her nose at me. Well, she had to tilt her head back to meet my eyes, but the motion definitely gave the impression of 'down the nose' when she did it. "You can't expect me to believe that you're really giving up, just like that? That you're really going to let Anshin'in and the Monster Princess get the better of you, that you're just going to prostrate yourself on their good nature?" She tsked, shaking her head with mock disappointment. "I know you much better than that, Zenkichi."

"No," I acknowledged, shaking my head agreeably. "There's no way in hell I would do that. But Shiranui, you're mistaken about something. That wasn't the first move at all. That was the last move."

Shiranui actually paused mid bite at my declaration, her steps faltering as well. It only lasted for a moment, before she resumed her walking and doubled the intensity of her eating. Pausing only long enough to gulp, she asked me in a low tone, "You mean…."

"Yes," I nodded. "Anshin'in is dead. I killed her myself, last night."

For a second Shiranui only watched me, her eyes focused intently on my own, and then they darted to the side, and I followed where her gaze landed.

On the wall beside the two of us, caught in odd angles between the florescent lights which lit the school corridor, our shadows followed our movements. It might have only been a trick of the light, some phenomenon made when we moved between the spaced fixtures, but while Shiranui's shadow remained mostly constant in shade, mine seemed to shift. At times it was oddly faded, almost invisible, whereas at other times it was far darker than it should have been considering how well lit the hallway was.

"Heheh," Shiranui began to chuckle, her lips parting back in a grin which resembled a shark's right before it took a bite out of an innocent swimmer. Throwing her head back she began to laugh out loud, her guffaws echoing through the mostly empty hallway.

My own smile was much more reserved, but that did nothing to diminish the satisfaction I felt.

_Extra Author's Notes:_

_Yo! For those of you wondering just what I'm doing writing a Bakemonogatari X Medaka Box Crossover, and not working on your rightfully deserved In Flight, well, it's a bit of a story._

_I mentioned before that chapters for In Flight were going to be delayed, even sporadic due to an internship in Japan. Well, after I finished the internship I ended in a position where I was finishing my report, graduating, trying to find a subleaser, dealing with a computer failure, dealing with fixing said computer, then dealing with somehow having managed to contract a genuinely malicious keystroke logger virus that raided every bit of my financial and personal data I had, then dealing with changing all said data, then dealing with moving, then dealing with etc. etc._

_You get the picture._

_Besides all that, I have another brief confession to make, one which doesn't push my lack of productivity onto random acts of a malicious god:_

_I just didn't feel like writing for a bit is all._

_I had spent roughly the same amount of time getting In Flight to that level as I did with writing all of Hill Of Swords. It might seem like a 'starving pretentious writer' thing to claim, but I just have ups and downs in my creativity. After Hill of Swords I took several months off to just relax and let the next story percolate in my mind. _

_This feels like much the same kind of break to me. _

_I still have the plot for In Flight firmly in my head, and still am going to finish it. Heck, with the loss of my computer I'm going to have to refind and replay the original Fate/Stay Night soon in order to help get the details back in my head, and that combined with the release of Fate/Zero is probably going to send me into a feverish inferno of Nasuverse fervor, an event which will no doubt fill me with horror afterwards. Combined with the chance for Sekirei to put some new chapters out and help refill my creative gauge on that account, I should be back up and in proper form pumping out chapters of ridiculous length in no time._

_That aside, for those actually interested in why I'm doing this new story, it's as much a chance to get back in the writing habit as it is to push one of the numerous ideas that have been floating about for a bit._

_I was doing some surfing and managed to discover the translation of 'Kizumonogatori', the prequel of Bakemonogatari which detailed Koyomi's first encounter with Shinobu, and loved it. After that I did some more surfing and discovered that the same writer who did Bakemonogatari also was doing a comic called 'Medaka Box'. Naturally curious, I started following it._

_I'm honestly not sure how to describe Medaka Box. So far its had two genre shifts so massive its almost like reading completely different stories. It's managed to include one of the most interesting villains I've seen in a long time (Kumagawa) and the latest story arch is so rich in genre savvyness that it's almost as though there is no fourth wall at all. I hear they're going to make an anime adaption in 2012, so I'm probably not gonna be able to stop myself from following that either._

_Well, whatever the case, I needed something to get myself back on the horse. This story should only run about four or five chapters total, and at the speed I'm putting it down it shouldn't take that long to finish. Just think of it as primer to start the pump._

_And if you don't like the two stories I'm using, I feel obliged to mention that this was almost a Tasogare OtomeXAmnesia X Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukanai crossover._

_Yeah. If you know those two series I'm sure you're already tilting your heads and wondering 'WTF mate?'_


	2. Chapter 2

Those Who Love Monsters…

Chapter Two

_Author's notes: Well, much as I suspected most of my reviews so far have been about In Flight, though I have had a few people happy for TWLM itself. I shouldn't be surprised, because I've already resigned myself to this not being one of my better works. It's just too hard to follow for most people who aren't familiar with the two series. In fact, it takes after the most recent chapter of Medaka Box anyway, meaning only the people who already follow the series will have any idea what's going on, and there's just too much history with too many characters left unsaid for most people to really follow what's going on._

_I'm cool with that though. I mentioned that this was just something to get me going again. Truth is, this is almost a reactionary story to some of the more recent events in Medaka Box. I've said before that I've always loved reviews that expressed strong opinions about something that happened in my stories because I considered being able to evoke a strong response as an indicator that people are being affected by my writing. In a way, this story is a sign that the writer of the two stories I'm using at the moment is able to get a response out of me. Even if a lot of people don't really like Nisio Isin's work, something I don't blame them for considering his writing style is a little weird and he has a strange way of putting together plot elements, I've always been fond of them so I guess this is more a tribute then anything else._

_That being said, those who do follow Medaka Box will no doubt cry out in outrage that I wasn't able to properly get the writing format for both Kumagawa and Takarabe's speaking patterns. It turns out that ffn doesn't allow for the strikethrough format, and I just plain couldn't figure out how to get Kumagawa's strange up/down bracketing to work anyway. I adapted as best I could, but it's just not the same. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, in Medaka Box every time those two talk the writer used some really bizzare punctuation for both, probably to emphasize how screwed up the two's personalities are._

_That being said, Chapter 2 down, probably only two more left to go! Maybe an epilogue after that. And for those just waiting for In Flight to get back up, lookie! Lookie! At least my insane writing speed remains constant!_

_Heh! Wanna make a response? Go ahead and give me a review! _

*Story Start*

"Zenkichi," Munakata began, his voice its usual monotone. "Are you sure about this?"

"Sure about what?" I asked, glancing up from where I was pushing around the rice in my bentou.

"About…" he began, and then trailed off, probably trying to decide how to describe the situation I had caused. "About everything," he finally settled on.

"Mmm," Emukae added, making an agreeing sound since her mouth was full at the moment. Taking a second to swallow, she continued. "Are you really just going to withdraw from the Student Council and quit?"

"Yes," I agreed bluntly. "I meant everything I said that day." I paused, and then let loose a brief sigh. With a fast snapping motion my chopsticks flashed out and clamped down on a pair which had been sneaking around me and attempting to pilfer a bit of omelet from my lunch box. "Stop that, Shiranui," I scolded her.

"Ahhh," my best friend groaned, appearing from behind me as though she were a ninja, shedding plastic bread wrappers like leaves. "But your mom always makes the best omelets! Come on, Hitoyoshi-sama! Spare poor Hansode-chan a bit!"

"Of course she makes the best omelets," I retorted, once more having to take defense measures to protect my lunch, even if it was mostly untouched. "That's why I'm eating them. You can have the rest afterwards."

"But if you just give me the rest, then there won't be any of the omelets left," Shiranui mourned, even as she settled down on the grass with a sigh. Appearing as though from nowhere she withdrew a too large shopping bag from behind her back and plopped it down next to her. I wasn't certain how she had managed to conceal it, seeing as it was literally bigger around then she was, but I had long since given up trying to understand just how it was Shiranui did the things she did when it came to food.

Thus it was particularly easy for me to ignore the way the tiny girl similarly pulled a fully cooked hunk of ham out which was once more bigger than the bag it had been held in. I was even able to ignore the fact that despite the enormous piece of meat she had just pulled from the bag, the bag didn't look even a little bit less full then it had a second ago.

Munakata and Emukae both lacked my experience with the phenomenon which was Shiranui during lunch, and thus were excused for the unnerved looks they started giving my best friend as she began to take dainty bites directly from the enormous ham held in her bare hands as though it were just an apple or some other fruit to be eaten directly.

At least I thought that was the reason that Munakata was staring so intently at Shiranui. I almost missed it, but long experience let me catch the almost imperceptible twinge which shot across the other boy's body, so I was ready for what came next.

Without a word, Munakata quickly pulled a gun, a 9mm Beretta from the looks of it, pointed it at Shiranui's open mouth, and pulled the trigger.

Emukae squeaked at the sudden motion, surprised at the rapid and unannounced assault, but when the trigger came down it came down on my thumb where I had placed it in front of the firing pin when I grabbed the slide of the automatic pistol, preventing it from firing. Shiranui ignored the sudden attempt on her life completely, instead choosing to focus on the more important meal she was already a third of the way through.

For a moment Munakata, Emukae, and myself all stood frozen at the sudden assault, then Munakata blinked, and looked down to where I was holding the gun. He pursed his lips for a second, and then said in his usual monotone, "Ah. Oops?"

"Don't worry about it," I told him reassuringly, letting the hammer settle slowly and then shifting my grip to press the slide release and removing the top of the pistol one handed with the ease of practice. My other hand finished bringing the piece of the omelet I had been about to eat up to my mouth. "You should be proud. That was only the third time this lunch hour."

Munakata was himself once a member of the Flask Plan, the organization which was trying to isolate just what it was that made abnormals so superhuman. Abnormals were people who had such irregular personalities that they sometimes spontaneously manifested abilities which were downright bizarre, bordering on the supernatural. Some of the things I'd seen abnormals do would have fit in right alongside some of the Kai I had dealt with in the past.

For Munakata, his abnormality was an irregular killing urge. The first thought that always crossed his mind when he met someone was 'How can I end this person's life?". The second thought was the same. So was the third, the fourth, and so on until the last thought, which was also identical. For him, every stimulus was automatically responded to with murderous intent.

Despite that, he had always managed to refrain from actually killing anyone. He had spent his entire life combating his own instincts, going out of his way to threaten and scare other people away before he gave into his instincts. It had been a noble, albeit lonely way of living, but he had managed to maintain it until the day when the Student Council had decided to end the Flask Plan and its human experimentation. It was during that conflict that I had fought Munakata.

It had been scary as hell. He had pulled swords, kusagari, scythes, daggers, clubs, mauls, pistols, sub-machine guns, Gatling guns, and even a freaking rocket launcher on me during the course of the fight. I still wasn't sure how he did it, but he had somehow mastered the art of concealing weaponry on him in the same way Shiranui could hide food. The fight had ended with my back filled with swords, spears, and naginatas, and me finally dropping a dozen swords I had stuck into the ceiling onto him in return.

And despite that, we had ended up getting along really well afterwards.

"Only the third," Munakata muttered, sounding pleased. "I really have been improving, haven't I?"

"It's the power of Zenkichi-kun influence," Emukae added, her tone shy as she fluttered her eyelashes at me. "Because Zenkichi-kun is such a kind person." Her gaze shifted to Munakata, and her expression turned a bit wary. "Even to all the weirdoes in his life."

"Yes," Munakata agreed, his expression stoically unchanging despite the not so subtle dig at him. "He manages to put up with a person like you, after all." Emukae's eyelid twitched, and the two of them began to glare at each other so hard that I could almost imagine the sparks forming.

Emukae used to be a member of Class Minus Thirteen, an organization of people called minuses who were similar to abnormals in that they too had unnatural abilities. The difference was that whereas abnormals generally had beneficial abilities called 'pluses', the skills minuses had generally had negative side effects for them. Minuses were people who always lost, who always failed, who were always hated, and despite all the negativity they thrived on the hatred and scorn they received.

Emukae's ability used to cause everything she touched to rot without fail. It made it hard for her to deal with other people naturally. Then the first time we met I unknowingly offered her my hand. She had decided that it was a sign that we were destined to be together, and then she had asked me how many children I wanted, told me how many she wanted, decided on what our future home would look like, how many pets we would have, how she would cook for me every day, would say 'ah' when she fed me, told me how many other boys she had like in the past, asked how many other girls I had liked, and let me know what she would do to me if I ever cheated on her.

Then she stabbed me in the foot with a kitchen knife.

All within the first three minute after having met me.

I had always thought that yandere didn't really exist until that day, but that meeting had showed me the truth and I think I was scared of girls for about a week afterwards.

Lucky for my sanity, Emukae eventually managed to reform, through the combined efforts of Medaka and me. Nowadays her former minus had evolved into a plus, a positive abnormality. She could now control whether or not she rotted something, and could even cause plants to grow.

I had always liked plants, personally, and she really was a nice girl now that she was sane, so I liked being around her. I knew she still had something of a crush on me, but at least she hadn't threatened to kill me for seeing other women for nearly a month.

After reviewing those last few thoughts carefully I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I should give my standards for what I looked for in friends a small review.

"There!" Shiranui's voice dragged me from my thoughts about my life style choices. "Now there's no more omelet left! You mind if I have the rest?"

I stared at the beaming smile of the young looking girl for a second, not comprehending what she was saying, and then I yelped and looked down. Despite the fact that I had only eaten maybe a third of the omelet my mom had cooked for me, the rest of it was now suspiciously absent. I glared at Shiranui, who even as she tried to give me an innocent look was chewing on something which had left yellow stains around her lip.

"You…" I began, trying to work my way up to feeling upset over the despicable thievery which had been perpetrated right beneath my nose, before I sighed. "I wasn't really that hungry anyway," I muttered, handing over the rest of the bento to my shameless friend.

"Heheh!" Shiranui crowded, taking the surrendered meal with the grace of a queen accepting her dues. "Never fear, Zenkichi-chan! I, the marvelous Shiranui-sama, shall help you with that!"

"And now the positions are reversed?" I muttered, noting the change of suffixes from her earlier attempt getting my food. Still, I didn't particularly care. I wasn't kidding when I said that I wasn't hungry. It had been three days since I had given my stunning public surrender, and lately I just hadn't had much of an appetite. Things had been going a little wild recently, and with all the fallout I just hadn't been particularly hungry, probably due to the stress.

Saying that reactions had been mixed over my withdrawal from the field of combat would be an understatement. Even if I wasn't now, I had been a member of the Student Council for months before I withdrew. During that time I had done a lot of things for a lot of people. The suggestion box that Medaka had originally proposed during her campaigning speech may have started slow, but once people realized she was serious it had picked up speed. With only four of us on the council for so long before Kumagawa accepted the final position we had to divide up the requests quite frequently. During that time I had helped a lot of people, and made good impressions on a lot of the school populace. I wasn't too surprised when I heard that a large portion of the school had actually been waiting to support me in a battle against Medaka.

Then again, a good bit of support had come from people that just didn't like Medaka either for that matter. Not as much as I might have thought though. Medaka had a strange ability to connect with her enemies rather easily. Some of them reformed out right, changing their ways and abandoning their grudges against her. On the other hand, many still actively opposed her. Despite that though, they still tended to support Medaka if the choice arose.

Medaka was perhaps the only person in the world who had her enemies come to support her in her troubled times.

My surrender had taken what promise to be an even split in the school's populace, and then turned it into yet another surprisingly even split along entirely different lines. Many of the people who had turned up to support me accepted my decision, and continued to support me even if I wasn't fighting. However, about half of my would be supporters were upset over my surrender without a battle, and had switched to supporting Medaka and decrying me. Medaka's forces had suffered a similar splintering. There were some who were content to simply see me no longer in opposition to Medaka, and were happy with my choice. Then again, there were others who saw my surrender as cowardly, and didn't hesitate to try and get me to change my position and oppose the Student Council I had once been a part of.

So the school continued to be divided, despite the fact that there was no more battle. I had heard before that high school politics were ridiculous, but I don't think this was what the people who had told me that were talking about.

"You know," Munakata began, giving Shiranui and I as odd a look as his usually stoic face could manage. "I never get used to seeing the two of you act."

"Yeah," Emukae agreed with her rival for my attention, nodding with a distinctly repulsed look on her face. "The way you two get along is just unnatural."

"It's not that weird," I defended my relationship with the living garbage disposal already tearing away at the home cooked meal my mom had provided for me. Even Shiranui gave me a dry look at the half hearted defense. Then her eyes lit up and she started chewing faster, before swallowing a mass of food so large I could make it out as it went down her throat.

"Right! Despite all appearance, our relationship is one of mutual trust and understanding!" Shiranui proclaimed, leaping to her feet and lifting an arm up righteously. Now it was my turn to give a dry look at the speaker. "To prove it, I shall now repay the favor given to me by Zenkichi-kun and give him a meal in return!"

"Wait," I gasped, nearly falling backwards in surprise. "Are you serious?" Shiranui, offering someone else some of her food? The same Shiranui who had once literally bitten my hand when I had tried to help myself to one of her doughnuts?

"Yup," Shiranui nodded proudly, as Emukae and Munakata gave each other concerned looks as they watched our strange byplay. Turning around, Shiranui began to rummage in her large plastic bag before proudly withdrawing something from it and turning to offer it to me with a beaming smile.

I paused, looking at the so called meal. With a sigh, I rubbed my forehead, needing to make absolutely sure of what I was seeing before I reacted properly. "Shiranui," I began, looking at the long wooden sticks that she was offering me in place of a meal. At one end each of the sticks had been whittled down to sharpened points. "What are those again?"

"Stakes, of course!" Shiranui proclaimed, and I had no doubt that if this were a manga the word would have been written as 'steaks' instead.

"And now you're using puns?" I snapped, grabbing the offered weapons and snapping them over a knee before launching myself at the laughing girl. With a twirl she dodged, giggling childishly as she started to run from my half hearted attacks.

"It's just unnatural," Emukae muttered, shaking her head sorrowfully.

"Hmmm," Munakata added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully in agreement. "For some reason, tsukkomi just doesn't suit Kenichi-kun," he concluded.

"That's not what I was talking about!" Emukae snapped, before freezing, one hand coming up to her mouth in horror. "And now you have me doing it too!" she declared, pointing an accusing finger at the other boy. I noticed the twitch once more, but this time when Munakata withdrew a nodachi from his sleeve and attempted to stab Emukae she just grabbed the offending weapon. Instantly, the steel began to rot away, leaving her completely undamaged from the attempted homicide.

Things devolved from there.

"Umm," a new voice interrupted the growing melee, and all four of us paused. "What are you guys doing?"

I took a second to glance down to where I had managed to capture Shiranui and was trying to playfully force feed her the same stakes she had offered me earlier as she squirmed desperately to escape my half nelson, and then over to where Emukae and Munakata were glaring at each other surrounded by nearly a half dozen mostly rotted weapons, and decided that there was no explanation in the world that could accurately convey just what had occurred. There was a brief moment where the eyes of everyone present shifted to meet the eyes of everyone else, and then an unspoken agreement was made.

"Nothing," we all said simultaneously.

"I see," the newcomer managed to get out, looking as though no, she really didn't see, but she was going to humor us anyway. Clearing her throat, she pushed her glasses higher up on her nose, before turning to face me with a stern look. "Zenkichi-kun," Kikaijima began, her tone regaining her usual sternness. "Is it alright if we talked for a bit?"

"Ah," I began, blinking, and realizing that at some point during my distraction Shiranui had disappeared from in my arms, having been replaced by an empty KFC bucket, and returned to her original position beside her large bag of food. "Was that utsusemi?" I couldn't help but mutter to myself, wondering if I had really just seen Shiranui use a ninja escape technique, before shaking my head and focusing instead on Kikaijima.

Of average height, Kikaijima was a rather pretty girl, even in my jaded eyes. With long hair she kept up in a ponytail, she had once been the star of the swim team before she had been scouted by Medaka for the position of Treasurer on the Student Council. She came from bad family circumstances, and as a result had an almost unnatural fixation on money, but despite that she was a person I actually kind of liked.

She was also what was referred to as a 'special' in this school; a person who didn't quite qualify as an abnormal, but was still nearly superhuman in some aspect. She had once boasted that she could hold her breath for a month, and though I wasn't certain if that was true, I had seen her use actually use that massive lung power to literally shout hard enough to create pressure bullets strong enough to dent steel.

Kikaijima began to blush slightly, and I realized that at some point I had begun to stare at her without speaking a little longer then was proper. "Um, Zenkichi-kun?" she said, glancing away shyly, "about that talk?"

"Oh," I began, shaking my head to clear it and wondering just why I had been staring. "I mean, yeah, sure," I finally got out, making my way back to where I had been sitting originally. As though on some unspoken agreement, both Munakata and Emukae also abandoned their impromptu battle, although when they returned to their seats they were both giving Kikaijima less then friendly looks.

After all, even if it had turned out anti-climatic, Kikaijima had been one of the ones who had chosen to side with Medaka over me. As two of my most avid supporters, Munakata and Emukae both took that a bit personally.

"Thank you," Kikaijima beamed at me, a smile of relief on her face as she did so. I smiled back, before realizing that I was once again looking at her a little too intensely. Awkwardly, I focused instead on my lap, straightening a few non-existent folds on my school uniform. It felt good to be back in white. One of the reasons I had originally chosen Hakoniwa Academy was that it had white in its uniforms after all.

"So," I began, after I had a second to compose myself. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Ah," Kikaijima began, and then glanced away, looking embarrassed. Straightening, she readjusted her glasses again, plastering a stern expression on her face. "Actually, I'm here today as a representative of the School Council."

"Hmph," Emukae snorted, folding her arms in front of her as she glared at Kikaijima. "And just what is it that the Council wants with Zenkichi-kun?" she demanded, instantly assuming a defensive role. "Zenkichi-kun has already withdrawn, hasn't he? What more do you want with him?"

Kikaijima scowled at the other girl, absentmindedly adjusting her hair. My eyes followed the movement of her hand briefly as it brushed against her shoulder and neck, before I once more realized I was staring and forced myself to look away. Fortunately, it appeared that no one noticed.

"Why I might disagree with many of the things that happened in the past week and a half," Kikaijima began, her tone disapproving as she lectured, "I'm afraid that this has nothing at all to do with those past conflicts."

Kikaijima might have sided with the Student Council, but I didn't doubt her words. She had always been a rather sensitive girl, and we had gotten along rather well after she had joined the council. I had little doubt that she had probably been very upset when Medaka and I had begun fighting, and though she was probably still a little upset that I had left the council, she was probably more relieved that the two of us wouldn't be coming to blows anytime soon.

"So then what is all this about?" I asked, intending to continue when suddenly I was interrupted by a growling noise. Blinking in surprise, I looked down as I realized that the noise had come from my stomach.

For some reason, despite my lack of appetite earlier, I was suddenly feeling rather hungry. I gave a half hearted look over to where Shiranui was blissfully continuing to devour my bento. Maybe I shouldn't have given up on it so fast.

"Well," Kikaijima began, losing her calm and once more sounding rather nervous. She paused, before slumping forward, suddenly appearing rather sheepish. "It's actually about Anshin'in-san."

I paused, and this time it wasn't because I had suddenly discovered some strange fascination with the girl opposite me. "And what does that have to do with me?" I asked bluntly. "I've already said that I will have nothing more to do with her or anyone affiliated with her."

"Heheh!" Shiranui chuckled, breaking into the conversation abruptly. At some point she had abandoned my bento and pulled what looked like a turkey leg from her unending bag of food. Despite the laughter, her smile was something fierce. With a grin that exposed too many teeth, she bit into the meat of the leg, tearing at it savagely. "How shameless," she crowed through a full mouth. "It seems that even your word is being doubted now, Zenkichi-kun!"

There have always been people who gave away their mood by eating. People who got depressed or worried who would start to consume larger and more frequent meals when upset. For Shiranui, who ate almost constantly, it was always the WAY she ate which gave her mood away. When she used utensils, or displayed manners, it was a sure sign that she was either happy or just content. It was when she abandoned those conventions and displayed an almost animal like tendency to tear into her food that indicated when something was affecting her.

For all that Shiranui sounded perfectly content there was definitely something going on in that twisted head of hers.

"We are not!" Kikaijima instantly defended herself, glaring down at the eating girl. "We would never doubt Zenkichi!" The second the words left her mouth she paled, slapped a hand over her mouth as though to try and keep anything else from spilling out. "I mean, I would never doubt Hitoyoshi-san," she corrected herself in a whisper.

Meaning that at least one on the council had already passed judgment on my actions. It didn't take me much to figure out just which one it most likely was. I didn't need to suppress a grimace. I had already known how my actions would be taken by that one.

I did shift uncomfortably though. I couldn't help but feel that I was ruining what should have been a solemn moment by being more concerned by the gnawing in my stomach then the potential emotional scarring.

"Hmhmm!" Shiranui hummed a triumphant noise, leering at Kikaijima. Reaching into her skirt, she pulled out a small notebook, glancing down at it as though to confirm something she already knew. "Don't worry about the slip, Zenkichi-chan," she told me in a stage rumor. "It's to be suspected of Kikaijima right now. After all," Shiranui gave the wilting Treasurer a cruel smile, "today's the day she starts her period!"

"How the hell do you know that!" Kikaijima screeched, the almost physical sensation of her voice as it rolled over me displaying that, yes, I hadn't been hallucinating when I had seen her send a person flying by yelling at them before. The now mortified girl turned so red that I was worried her head might pop for a second. Munakata flinched, having now learned something that no man is ever comfortable knowing about, and even the thus far confrontational Emukae seemed ready to side with Kikaijima after Shiranui's violent betrayal of the secret feminine oath of support during those troubling days of the month.

I on the other hand, despite how hungry I was, felt ill for a whole new reason as the news sank into my brain. Even as Kikaijima launched herself at the laughing Shiranui, demanding financial recompense for her emotional scarring, I noticed that Shiranui had somehow kicked my bento back within arm's reach of me. Despite the fact that she had already eaten it, it was now once more full of food, no doubt supplied from the endless bag of delicacies still looking stuffed full where it sat.

Wordlessly, ignoring the way the scene was once more degenerating into a free for all, I took the food and began shoveling it into my mouth, not bothering to taste it, and half suspecting that even once I was done I still wouldn't be completely satisfied.

I carefully did not think of just what it was that would have sated the hunger in my gut.

*Scene Break*

"So," I began, feeling somewhat awkward as I glanced around the Student Council room. It had been nearly a week since I had been in here, and while the surroundings were still familiar, the atmosphere most definitely wasn't. "Why am I here again?"

"It's about Anshin'in-san," Maguro began, his voice somber as he did so. The professional trainer was in his usual trendy clothes, leaning confidently in a corner of the room. "We think she might be in trouble."

"Really?" I asked, not even trying too hard to keep my absolute lack of concern from showing. "And once more, why am I here?"

It was an interesting gathering of people, so many that the medium sized room seemed overly crowded from holding them all. It went without saying that the Student Council was all in attendance. Akune had taken a position leaning against a wall, his expression somber making his already overly handsome features resemble something out of a bishounen manga. Kumagawa stood near him, his hands in his pockets as he presented the world with his ever present far too innocent smile. Kikaijima, still red from the episode that had happened during lunch was absolutely refusing to meet my eyes, though that didn't stop her from glaring venomously at Shiranui, who had decided that tagging along with me to the after school meeting wouldn't suitably interfere with her mid afternoon snack. Perhaps most noticeable of the Student Council was Medaka, the now unclaimed armband for General Affairs Manager pinned noticeably under her President armband. Seated calmly at her desk, she had only deigned to give me a single glance since I had entered, and then looked away. There was nothing hostile or overly acknowledging in the look. It was the look that someone might give a piece of furniture before they focused on the person using it.

It was about what I had suspected I'd receive.

Beyond that, a few people who had at times lent their strength to the Student Council had gathered as well. Maguro for one, though standing nearby him was Naze-sempai as well. Wrapped in her usual bandages, and with a large dagger imbedded in her forehead, Naze was in her usual position, arms crossed underneath her generous chest, a position which she claimed to favor because it supported her breasts in the absence of a bra.

I had no idea if that was true or not, though with Naze it might go either way. Naze had once done me a big favor in helping me train for a hard battle, and had been one of my most ardent supporters when it looked like I was going to be confronting Medaka. Once I had withdrawn, she had displayed neither support nor antagonism of my decision, merely shrugging and going about her business as if the whole incident had never happened.

Standing beside Naze-sempai, was her BFF, Itami Koga. Koga had once been a normal girl, until she had rebelled against her average status and had Naze perform ludicrously dangerous surgery to make her into an abnormal. She had taken a pretty serious injury when the Student council had shut down the Flask Plan, and had been in recovery for some time. Still, her claim of being Naze's BFF was serious, and she would frequently show up to support the bandaged mad scientist during times of trouble.

Besides them, the last five occupants of the room were the ones who had apparently come to seek aid for their leader, or master, or whatever it was that Anshin'in had once been to them:

The Replacement Council.

When Anshin'in had first confronted Medaka with the fact that she only had to wait until Medaka was gone to restart her human experimentation, Medaka had decided the best way to stop her would be to train the replacement student council so that they would be able to continue her ideals. After a grueling selection process which involved dealing with Kumagawa for a period of ten seconds (which despite how ridiculous it might sound actually did count as a truly harrowing experience) these five middle schoolers had been the ones who had been selected for training for when they finally graduated to high school.

"Well," the speaker began, sounding rightfully awkward as she did so, "as you may or may not know, the five of us are Not Equal." Shori Wanizuka was a tall girl who liked wearing militaristic outfits with eye patches and playing with guns.

"And you have no idea how much that confession shocks us," Naze spoke up, her voice gritty despite her ironic tone. It had slowly become something of an open secret that all five of the Replacement Council had ended up being infiltrators. Not Equal had been the name of the organization that Anshin'in had led. These five had been carefully selected by her as a method of driving a wedge between myself and Medaka. Anshin'in had rightfully realized that as the only normal that had much interaction with Medaka, I was in a way special to her because of that. But when these five had started interacting with her, Medaka suddenly had a benchmark to hold me to.

Turns out I fell short.

"Well," another of the five girls continued, this one in a sleeveless blazer with big goggles and a set of headphones on. Even as she spoke she continued to focus most of her attention on the game system in her hands. Kiki Kikitsu was something of a genius who could only focus on something as long as it was a challenge, and only then for as long as it took for her to solve it. "It's hard to explain to someone who isn't a part of Not Equal," she explained, her voice sounding disinterested as she gave her explanation. "But to be a part of Not Equal is to be a part of Anshin'in-sama. Ever since we joined, it was like we were connected to her. Now though…" she trailed off, and despite the disinterested tone she was using during her explanation, her game suddenly began emitting the kind of noises that only come when it was mocking a player for failing. With a grimace, Kikitsu shut down her system. "Now it's gone."

"Gone?" Maguro prompted, his eyebrows narrowing as he took in the confession. Maguro's own abnormality was one of intense analysis. It was what let him be such an effective trainer. Now it appeared as though the truly frightening capabilities of his brain were being turned to the situation presented. "What do you mean?"

"She means it's just gone!" the girl in an utterly normal middle school uniform broke in, actual tears in her eyes. Tsugiha Yojirou was for all appearance nothing more than a normal girl. Despite that, I have been informed that she was also completely crazy. It seems she periodically had genuine visual and audio delusions that she was in fact a Magical Girl sent here to defend the earth from monsters and witches. "It's like some evil general stole my transformation wand!" she wailed, showing the crazy side of her again. "What will the world do without Magical Girl Wonder Tsugiha?"

"Oh," Naze broke in, her naturally rough voice tinted with amusement. "I'm sure we'll get by."

"As you can see," Akune broke in smoothly, interrupting what promised to be a descent into unproductiveness, "it appears as though something has gone wrong with Not Equal. Though this isn't precisely bad news," he grimaced, glancing over at Medaka, "these five have officially put in a request through the suggestion box. And thus…" He trailed off, and I got the gist of it.

Medaka took her suggestion box very seriously after all. Even if it's a request to help her enemy, she would still do everything in her power to help.

"And yet again," I repeated, tapping my foot impatiently. "Just why am I here? Better yet: Why should I even care? I've already told you all that I'd have nothing to do with Not Equal or Anshin'in-san anymore. Moreover, I'm not part of the Student Council either. Can I go now?"

"You were asked here today, Student Hitoyoshi," Medaka began, reaching into her cleavage to pull out her customary fan so she could snap it open in a practiced motion, "because it is believed that you were most likely the last one to come into contact with the person in possible trouble. If you could just tell us about anything you might have seen, or might have been out of place, then we won't take up anymore of your time."

I took in Medaka slowly, watching the way she didn't even bother to look up from her paperwork as she used the fan to conceal the lower portion of her face. Even now, I couldn't help but think she was beautiful. Her uniform had been specially modified to show off far more of her cleavage then was strictly appropriate, an act which had gotten her in trouble in the past. Despite that Medaka persisted in showing off her body, being proud of it and never having any trouble displaying it. Even with her treating me as nothing more than another student, I felt a part of me that had long grown used to being in her presence react in an uncomfortably favorable way.

"And what makes you think that I was the last person to meet her?" I asked, more to focus myself then because I really wanted to know. Medaka at last turned to look at me, before her eyes drifted down to my side.

"Because your friend, Student Hansode, upon hearing of our investigation informed us of it," she told me.

I blinked, and then whirled to confront Shiranui only to discover that at some point in the conversation she had disappeared. The customary empty bucket of chicken was still settling, a testament to the suddenness of her departure. Taped to the edge of the bucket was a piece of paper. Yanking it off the bucket, I brought it up so I could see what was on it.

"'Had to leave. Just heard of a sale for fresh fish. Have fun, Zenkichi-kun! Gyahahahaha' Smiley face, smiley face," I read out loud, noting the picture she had drawn depicting a cartoonish rendition of herself winking at me. Unable to believe that Shiranui had set me up, I could only shake my head in bemusement. "She really is the worst best friend ever," I muttered.

"That goes without saying," Kikaijima muttered, her face turning red again as she no doubt remembered her own confrontation with the now absentee big eater. I very purposefully did not look at her.

"Well then," Medaka prompted, apparently eager for me to finish saying my piece so she could get on with the task presented to her, before she paused, her eyes narrowing. Fixing me with a slightly more interested look, she continued. "Could you describe your final confrontation with Anshin'in-san?"

Ah. Interesting that Medaka chose the term 'confrontation'. It looked like she was hoping for something in particular in what had happened. It seemed she hadn't completely given up on the idea of me being a foe after all.

Still, it was time to disappoint her once more.

"The last time I saw her was the day before I came back," I admitted, shrugging as I did so. "She seemed very happy about something. I have no idea what happened to her after that."

All of which was strictly true. She had seemed happy, or rather she had died laughing. Or crying. It was hard to tell at that point. As for what happened afterwards, I really don't have any idea. After all, it's not like I know if there's a heaven or a hell.

"Hmph," Medaka grunted, sounding displeased by my confrontation with Anshin'in. In fact, she looked distinctly unhappy that I had been answering so passively.

"Well that's not very useful," a girl with a large forehead wearing a dark middle school uniform broke in. "**Why the hell are we asking this loser? It's not like he could even figure out a simple riddle.**" Ima Takarabe was the fourth member of the Replacement Council, and had a strange habit of saying one thing while meaning another thing entirely. It would have been a much more convincing act if she didn't tend to actually say what she was really thinking as well; actually voicing your doublespeak made it pretty hard to fool people.

"Oi," I snapped, my eyes narrowing, and my tone coming out a lot sharper then I had intended to. "At least I tried. I don't want to hear that from someone who just gave up." That riddle again. That stupid freaking riddle.

"Oh," Takarabe began, "I'm sorry Sempai." Of course this was immediately followed by, "**Hey! I actually passed that test, unlike you!**"

"No," I disagreed, my voice getting even sharper. "The only ones who actually passed that were Kikitsu and Akune. The rest of you just shamelessly piggy backed off their hard work!"

"Wait everyone!" Kikaijima interrupted, actually getting between the two of us in an effort play the peace maker. "Just calm down, okay." Despite her words, Kikaijima gave me a chagrined look. "Zenkichi-kun," she continued, sounding apologetic. "It wasn't exactly like that…"

I folded my arms, grunting as I did so. The hell it wasn't. "The rules said it was a free for all," I growled, though I did do my best to not direct it at Kikaijima directly. It wasn't her fault that the riddle had turned out to be the catalyst for destroying a major portion of my life. "At least Akune did the hunt properly."

"Ah," Akune began, before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I forgot, you weren't there. I actually joined up with the rest to work together after all," he admitted, glancing to the side as he did so.

I couldn't quite stop myself from giving him an incredulous look. I had expected something like that from Kumagawa, who was rather shameless when it came to taking advantage of people, but I had always thought that Akune had enough pride to do things properly himself.

So what? Was the reason that things turned out the way they did that day because I was the only one who actually was willing to do their own work? Because I had been the only one apparently willing to take responsibility for my own actions, to succeed or fail on my own merit? That was what had caused all this?

"Zenkichi," Maguro spoke up abruptly, drawing my attention away from my angry thoughts. "Look at me," he ordered, his voice a snapped command instead of his usual easy going tone. Instinctively from the times he had helped me as a trainer I obeyed his order and looked his way.

For a long second he didn't speak, and instead just stared at me intently. It took a second longer for me to understand what he was looking at.

Instantly, I snapped my eyelids shut, and not for the last time I cursed that stupid riddle. It had been the thing that had set off the whole chain of events. It might be irrational, but a part of me blamed it for what had happened, even if I knew intellectually that in the end it had just been chance that it in particular had served as the starting point that didn't change the fact that it made me angry. And I had a unique response to getting angry I'd been trying to conceal.

"Zenkichi, open your eyes," Maguro ordered me, his voice intent even as other occupants in the room made exclamations of surprise at the sudden derailment of the previous argument.

"No," I told him, folding my arms childishly. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Calm down Zenkichi. "I think I'll keep them closed for a bit."

"Hmmm," Maguro hummed briefly. "You know, the answer to the cryptogram was to connect all the characters that could be read as 'shi' and form the Roman numeral IIII. From there you were supposed to know that only clocks used that that particular notation."

"What?" I snapped, my eyes opening so I could stare in disbelief at the eldest Kurokami sibling. "Isn't four supposed to be IV? I never even heard of IIII being used before…."

I trailed off, realizing that I had been had. With a grimace I folded my arms and gave him a good look at my eyes by glaring at him. "That was cheap and you know it."

"Zenkichi-kun," Kikaijima gasped, staring at me like the rest of the room now that they knew where to look. "What happened to your eyes?"

"They turn red when I'm angry," I admitted, grumbling a bit as I did so. That stupid riddle. I was usually so good about keeping control of myself in public. It was something I had worked hard on in the past in order to keep something just like this from happening. I knew that I wasn't quite as calm about the whole situation as I had been trying to act, but if I was actually upset enough to lose my temper over something like this, then I really wasn't in nearly as much control as I had thought I was.

"I've never seen them do that before," Medaka pointed out, actually looking surprised as she stared into my now crimson orbs. I had seen them before when they were like this in a mirror. Usually they were a shade of blue so light that they were almost grey. It wouldn't be unusual for eyes to change color normally. All it takes is a busted blood vessel to make them dark red, and I've heard of people whose eyes changed according to their mood as a result of their blood pressure.

Unfortunately, my eyes didn't change according to those rules. When they turned red, they didn't actually get darker, they grew clearer instead. After all, it wasn't a result of any natural or biological rule which governed the change.

At least it wasn't dark enough for them to notice the glow.

"Well, obviously, you've never seen me angry before, now have you?" I told her bluntly. Medaka blinked at that, actually looking surprised, before her eyes narrowed into a scolding expression.

"I've seen you angry plenty of times in the past, Zenkichi," she told me in a lecturing tone.

"No," I corrected her, my eyes narrowing. "You've seen me upset, disturbed, frustrated, annoyed, depressed, resigned, resolved, contemptuous, regretful, and a dozen other different emotions. Just never angry. I've always made it a point not to get angry where anyone could see me." I paused, and then continued. "And would you stop switching back and forth between Hitoyoshi and Zenkichi? Just pick one and stick with it."

"Ah," Medaka nodded, and despite the fact that I had just snapped at her she seemed happy. "That was annoyed, wasn't it?" She seemed inordinately pleased with being able to identify what I was feeling. It might have actually been the first time she ever really had.

There really wasn't any point in trying to talk to her right now. I took a deep breath, forced myself to calm down, and closed my eyes. It took a few moments, but when I was confident that I was calm I opened my once more blue eyes.

"Well," Takarabe began, eying me carefully as she did so. "That was kind of weird." A second later she continued. "**Okay, is anyone else here really freaked out by that?**"

"Interesting," Maguro said softly, still studying me hard. I could imagine the full weight of his analysis ability coming to the fore as he regarded me like a specimen in a beaker. "It seems you have gone through some effort to keep this characteristic secret," he continued. "Is there any particular reason for that?"

"Because my eyes freaking change color when I'm angry and I didn't want people to know," I supplied for him in a tone that also added the unsaid 'no duh' rather clearly.

"Heh," Naze-sempai grunted, her tone sounding every bit as intrigued as it did amused. "Zenkichi, would you mind going into a bit more detail about your last meeting with Anshin'in?" Maguro gave his sister a surprised look as she apparently moved to take control of the conversation.

"What do you mean?" I asked, shifting uncomfortably. In the eyes of Maguro and Naze, both analytical type geniuses abnormal, I might as well have just made a big sign with neon lettering and an air horn in tow.

"What I mean is that Anshin'in had apparently been around for centuries," Naze elaborated, not bothering to conceal her intentions. "Then she suddenly isn't. And the only thing that was different between now and then was that before she hadn't done anything to you directly. Afterwards, you disappear for three days, and when you come back she's gone and you end up losing your temper easily. The same temper that you've apparently contained for years in order to keep even Medaka, who has known you nearly your entire life, from knowing about their strange characteristics."

"What are you trying to say, Naze-sempai?" I asked, trying not to show any reaction to the leading question. Now that I was back in control, I was taking care not to slip up again, so my attitude had managed to return to its earlier indifference.

"What did you do to Anshin'in, Zenkichi?" she asked me directly. Naze rarely was the type to beat around the bush when it came to things like this. "And do you need help getting rid of the body?"

It said something about Naze that the offer actually appeared to be in good faith. It's always nice to know that at least one of your friends will help you dispose of a corpse if you ever needed to.

"Hey, now wait a second," Akune burst in, actually appearing surprised at the accusation. "You can't mean to say that Zenkichi of all people had something to do with what the Not Equal are apparently going through?"

"I can't help but feel dirty having you of all people try and defend me," I muttered, causing Akune to give me a brief amused glance. Even if we had resolved our differences, there had been a time when the two of us had been a lot like a cat and a dog locked in a small confined area.

"Akune-sempai is right," Kikaijima added, glancing between Naze and me as though trying to understand where the question had come from through the use of visual cues. "Even if Zenkichi-kun is really strong, he's still just a normal! There's no way that he would be able to go up against a monster like Anshin'in. Moreover, what kind of person do you think Zenkichi is? Do you really think he'd go off on his own and do something like what you're trying to imply? Zenkichi wouldn't do something like kill a person!"

"Um," for the first time, Koga interjected herself into the conversation. "Actually, isn't that exactly the kind of thing that Hitoyoshi-kun would do?" Rather than look disturbed or upset like some in the room were starting to become, the remodeled human simply seemed curious.

"Koga-sempai!" Kikaijima gasped, probably honestly offended that the older girl would assume that kind of thing about me. "How can you say something like that!"

"Huh?" Koga tilted her head, looking curious over the reaction that Kikaijima was having over her innocent question. After a second, the confusion cleared up and the older girl beamed a smile, slapping one fist into an open palm. "Ah! That's right! You weren't there for the fight. It's just that Hitoyoshi-kun actually did try to kill Kumagawa-kun back during the General Affairs Manager match! It was kind of cool! He was all like 'Bang!' and then 'Whoosh!' and then they both fell into a pit of snakes!" During the explanation the irrepressibly cheerful abnormal began to make excited arm motions to emphasize the sound effects. "Isn't that right, Kumagawa-kun…" she began, turning to the Secretary of the Student Council before trailing off. "Kumagawa-kun?" she repeated, looking curious.

Following her look, I realized that at some point Kumagawa had gone to squat facing one of the corners of the room. He had one hand wrapped around his knees while the other was picking at some of the linoleum on the floor.

"[Zenkichi-chan's eyes turn red when he's mad]," he muttered, sounding vaguely depressed as he did so. "[Even though we used to fight so much, even though I tried so hard to break him, Zenkichi-chan's eyes never turned red for me]."

"That's what's upsetting you about this conversation?" Kikaijima demanded, staring at her fellow council member.

Before he had become a member of the Student Council, Kumagawa had been the leader of the Class Minus Thirteen, and an all around twisted individual even among twisted individuals. He used to excel at breaking peoples spirits and wills, and even their bodies at times. It was true that I had tried to kill him, but compared to the long list of things he had tried to do to me I felt more than a little justified in my attempted homicide.

Actually, I really had managed to kill him during that attempt. It was just that at the time he happened to have a power which let him auto-resurrect. Considering that the attempt had nearly killed me as well, I had felt a little cheated afterwards.

"I wasn't there for that either," Akune added, tone thoughtful as he turned a speculative glance at me. "But I'm well aware of Zenkichi's habit of trying to take care of problems on his own. He actually tried to get rid of me once, back in junior high, and I heard rumors of him taking care of several problem students before they got out of hand on his own as well."

"Oh ho!" Medaka was definitely getting interested now, though at least she had the good grace not to look happy over where the conversation was going. Not too happy anyway. "Zenkichi, do you have anything to say to this?"

I started to rub the back of my neck awkwardly, before pausing and realizing that the action probably made me look guilty. Then I realized the pause probably made me look even more guilty and decided to just go ahead and rub anyway. Finally, I turned to Naze-sempai.

"No," I told her. I saw her eyebrow shift beneath the bandages she kept wrapped around her head.

"No you didn't do anything?" she asked, actually sounding disappointed that I was denying her accusation. I shook my head 'no' at her question.

"No. I meant, 'No I didn't need any help getting rid of the body'." The grin that spread across Naze-sempai's face was something reminiscent of some of the ones I had seen Shiranui sport in the past.

"Is that because there is no body to get rid of, or because you already managed to get rid of it on your own?" she asked, sounding delighted at the way the conversation had turned.

"Yes," I said, not specifying which one I was agreeing with. There really wasn't any point in trying to conceal that I had been involved with something. Not now that Naze and Maguro were both suspicious. There was no way I would be able to lie to either one of them convincingly, not for long anyone.

And that didn't even begin to include just how hard it would be to shake Medaka's interest now that it had been reawakened.

"So something did happen between you and Anshin'in-sama?" Kikitsu broke in, actually dragging her attention away from her videogame to give me a genuinely hopeful look.

"I didn't say that," I reminded her with a cool look. "I just said that I didn't need help getting rid of a body."

"Please," the middle school girl, begged, her tone desperate. "I just need to know if something happened. It's…" she trailed off, and glanced to the last member of the Replacement Council, the only person here who hadn't spoken once the entire meeting.

Her name was Suishou Kibougaoka, and she was apparently a genuine android. I say apparently because back when she had first begun to work with the Hakoniwa Student Council she had been capable of acting almost exactly like a person. She had had a personality, opinions, and even had a somewhat cute French accent.

Now though, it looked as though all life had been sucked out of her. She stood silently, appearing every bit the machine she really was. I don't know what had caused this change, but if what the others had said were true, and they really were in some way connected to Anshin'in, then it might have been because of her that the android had so perfectly imitated a human. Now, without such a powerful benefactor, it looked as though that imitation had come to an end.

And despite that, I didn't feel an ounce of pity or a drop of remorse.

"I have nothing more to add to this conversation," I declared, folding my arm. "If that's everything, then I'll be leaving now."

"Wait," Wanizuka snapped, standing to her full height so she could give me a furious look at my dismissal of her friend's misfortune. "You're not going anywhere until you answer the question!"

"Yeah!" Takarabe added. And then after that: "**Oh God! What the hell am I doing! He's going to kill me and then give the crazy girl in the corner my body!**"

For a second I looked between the four girls trying to confront me, and then I sighed, and reached down into my satchel. Everyone blinked as I pulled out a piece of paper and began writing on it, and then watched in silence as I walked to the front door of the Student Council room. Opening it I leaned out, finding what I was looking for.

There: the suggestion box that Medaka was so proud of. Reaching out, I put the piece of paper into the box, and then came back into the room.

"Um," Akune began, watching me as I stood patiently under the stares of the rest. It seemed he was honestly at a loss for words. It was Kumagawa who eventually gave in, and then made the trip I just had, this time taking in the box with him as he did so.

"[Let's see]," he began, opening the box and pulling out the piece of paper I had put in a few seconds ago. "[Here it is! 'Dear Student Council. I am being harassed by several junior high girls and a few of their high school friends about a subject I don't feel comfortable talking about. Could you please get them to leave me alone? Sincerely, Zenkichi Hitoyoshi'.]

"You can't be serious!" Wanizuka burst out, before she was instantly silenced by a motion of Medaka's fan.

"Enough!" Medaka told her sternly. "It's obvious that you're questions are making Zenkichi uncomfortable. We should all stand back and give him the space he requested!"

The looks of shock that spread across the Replacement Council's face were almost enough to bring a smile to my face. Judging from the looks of resignation which everyone else was sporting, they had at least had the experience to see what was coming. Medaka took her suggestion box very seriously after all, and even in the face of such obvious manipulation she continued to abide by her oath to see to every request, no matter whom from and no matter what about.

"That was unexpectedly sly, Zenkichi," Naze noted, seeming as amused by the turnabout as I was. Considering that Naze had herself taken advantage of Medaka's forthright nature more than a few times herself, it looked like she could appreciate seeing someone else doing so as well.

"Thanks, Naze-sempai," I told her. "So, if there's nothing else then, I'll be heading out now."

Just as I reached the door, Naze spoke up one more time. "If I were to ask a hypothetical question, then would that still count as harassment, Zen-chan?"

I paused at the exit, not turning around but not opening the door either. "Maybe," I acknowledged, waiting. I owed Naze-sempai a lot for the help she gave me in the past. I could hear her out at the very least.

"If, hypothetically speaking, Anshin'in really was dead, then how would someone go about doing that? She was over two hundred years old, after all, and had over a quadrillion skills. She didn't even qualify as a human anymore, by her own admission. If, say, someone like you," her voice was laced with sardonic amusement at her blatant question hidden behind being a supposed hypothesis, "were to try and take her on, how would they go about doing it?"

"An interesting question," I answered, my voice showing my own amusement at her blatant interrogation. "I would have to say that in such a situation, your hypothesis would be in error in one key point."

"And that would be?" I could hear her shift as she leaned forward, no doubt eager to hear my answer.

"The part about her not being human anymore," I answered bluntly. "Even if there was a two hundred year old skill user with a couple billion skills, it wouldn't make her not a human. It would just make her an absurdly powerful human. It would mean she could make mistakes, could underestimate others and overestimate herself."

"Hmph," Naze snorted, but didn't press any further.

"Well if you're answering hypothetical questions, then here's one for you," this time it was Kikitsu who spoke. "How could you do such a thing? How could you just walk away without even caring while Suishou-chan is just standing there like that!"

The girl seemed genuinely upset, and I snorted at her indignation.

"Hypothetically, how could I not?" I asked back, scorn in my voice. "If a person like Anshin'in were to do something like she did to a person like me, then how could someone like me ever consider her to be anything but an enemy? And the only person in this room who actually tries to help their enemies is Medaka. Not me. I'm just a normal person, and normal people try to destroy their enemies, not help them.

"And as for your friend," I continued, turning over my shoulder so that I could eye the now nervous girl with eyes now no doubt red again. "Didn't you say earlier that all of you were like a part of Anshin'in? In the end, I suppose that would make every one of you my enemy as well, now wouldn't it?"

Kikitsu swallowed hard. It appeared that she was beginning to consider the potential negative repercussions of her association with the former Anshin'in.

"Any other questions?" I asked the room at large, already turning back to the door. I was half way out it when one more person spoke up.

"Zenkichi!" Medaka's voice was strident as she called my name, and it didn't take thirteen years of experience understanding her to interpret the excitement in her tone. "It seems that you have fallen even further then I had suspected! But make no mistake," she continued, "No matter how deep you sink, be assured that I will eventually pull you out of the darkness and see you reformed!"

I didn't bother to answer her.

*Scene Break*

"Indeed," Shinobu sighed, annoyed by my question. "It is true that most of thy human time pieces do indeed contain the sigil of IIII."

"I can't help it if most of the clocks I use are digital," I protested, trying to defend my ignorance halfheartedly. "And how was I supposed to know that IV wasn't even the original Roman number?"

"Thou didn't?" Shinobu repeated, sounding surprised. "I had thought it common sense. I do believe in mine own time as human 'twas common knowledge."

I didn't mention that her own time she might well have met Romans in person, mostly because I was absolutely positive her vengeance would be swift and violent but also because it might very well have been true. I was a bit hazy about western history, after all.

Instead I just sighed, and leaned back on my impromptu thrown of desks, letting the manga in my lap slide down. It was late again, and I hadn't bothered to bring any lights with me to illuminate the mostly empty abandoned classroom the two of us were lounging in. It wasn't like I needed it to see by, and I wasn't expecting any company that would need it.

The rustle of a cool breeze through the pages of the manga in my lap brought my attention back to it. No, it wasn't Shounen Jump either. For all that Anshin'in seemed to love comparing reality to the weekly publication I had long since stopped being a fan of those kind of comics.

I tended to prefer publications like Halloween, Nemukai, and even Horror M despite it technically being a shoujo comic targeted at girls publication.

Still, I couldn't help but shake my head as my thoughts lingered on the confrontation this afternoon between myself and the Student Council and their allies. I knew I should be focused on the revelation of my involvement with the disappearance of Anshin'in, and on the implications that Medaka had once more begun to consider me her enemy, but strangely my thoughts continued to linger on the revelation of the answer to the riddle.

That and the fact that I really had been the only one there who had truly tried to meet the challenge Medaka had presented on my own. For some reason, I found the fact that even if I had failed, I at least had been the only one willing to do so on my own merit to be comforting.

"Thy ignorance aside, servant," Shinobu continued, giving me an imperious look from the center of the room. "I wouldst consult with thee about thy actions this afternoon when in the presence of thy substitute master."

"You think I might have revealed a bit too much?" I asked, looking up as Shinobu appeared to be offering me genuine advice on how to proceed. I had never once intended for a confrontation between myself and the Medaka to come about, much less like that. I had thought I had covered myself pretty well, and that I would be able to escape any further attention from the powers that be in Hakoniwa Academy.

Of course, that would have been exactly what would have happened too, if it wasn't for Shiranui throwing me to the wolves like that. A lesser man might be upset by betrayal of that magnitude, but I knew better. It wasn't like it was out of character for Shiranui, after all. And for all that it might seem otherwise, I had no doubt that Shiranui hadn't just done it for fun.

This had all the earmarks of one of her twisted schemes, after all. Even if I couldn't figure out what it was, I just knew she was planning something.

"What foolishness is that?" Shinobu scoffed, rejecting my belief that I should have tried to be a bit more crafty. "Nay, my subordinate. My quarrel with thy actions was that thou didst not stand forward more proudly with thine accomplishments! Thou hast met thy foe, and seen her fallen before you! Why should thou not boast of your triumph?"

Once more Shinobu displayed one of those strange moments where the difference in her thought process from humanity's was made abundantly clear. Standing proud, the young looking vampire placed one hand on her hip, and tossed the other to the side, proudly puffing her chest forward to signify her pride in my accomplishments. It was a pose she was quite fond of and used often before to praise my achievements. Of course, during those times she hadn't been in the shape of an eight year old child.

Shinobu in her diminished form puffing her chest was moderately adorable. Shinobu in her adult form puffing her chest could stop traffic and make even the supermodel-esque Medaka feel a little inadequate.

"If I had told them the truth of how I won, then they would have found out about you as well," I reminded her, shaking my head slowly. "If that had happened they might have tried to separate the two of us."

Shinobu's eyes narrowed, and she bristled, her long hair rising slightly like that of a cats. "If there be any so foolish as to attempt such a thing, then I shall build a mountain of their corpses as a monument to their impetuousness," she growled, though she settled down afterwards. After a moment, she nodded once more. "In light of this revelation, I doest concede that thy approach 'twas perhaps more appropriate."

Having said her piece, she solemnly turned away, and resumed the activity she had been in the middle of when I had originally brought up my question about clock numbers.

That activity being hopscotch of all things.

I don't know what it was that had convinced the ancient vampire to try such a thing, but she had at some point taken a particularly sharp piece of rubble and scratched a crude set of boxes onto the dirty floor of the classroom. Even as I watched she squinted her eyes, her tongue poking out from between her lips as she concentrated, before solemnly tossing another piece of rock carefully so that it landed on the box with the number seven etched into it. With solemnity unbefitting of her task, she began carefully hopping down the course, unconcerned with my semi-amused attention.

It was hard to imagine that just three days ago, this innocent looking waif had been my accomplice in killing off a creature which just might have been able to challenge even the fully powered vampire she used to be.

Truthfully, it had been Shinobu who had actually given me the plan I had needed in order to get the upper hand. Well, not Shinobu herself. Rather, it could be said that the chain of events that had led me and Shinobu to meeting had been what had given me the plan.

When I had first met Shinobu, she hadn't looked like she did now. She had appeared to be perhaps twenty seven, and was wearing a chic dress. Sitting beneath the only undamaged light in the park I had been walking in, she had appeared ethereal, delicate, like some piece of spun gold embroidered into a work of art.

This was despite the fact that at the time both her arms and both her legs were missing. The edges of the lost limbs had been grotesque, looking almost as though something had chewed their way through them to leave her in her ruined state.

And despite her maiming, she had still been beautiful.

At the time she had called out to me, demanding of me to give her my blood, saying that she would allow me to give my life for her. At first, I had stood frozen, and the longer I went without saying anything the more desperate she became, even going so far as begging me with tears of blood trailing down her face as she wept, screaming that she did not want to die.

For reasons of my own, I had answered her request.

I had thought that would be it, that my life would be over, and that I would move on to whatever came next. Instead, to my surprise, I had woken up three days later in this very room and no longer a human.

It was then that Shinobu made me an offer. She had been ambushed, attacked in a moment of incaution, by those who specialized in vampire hunting. There had been three of them, and each of them had taken her limbs before she had managed to escape and come across me. Shinobu promised me that if I would recover her limbs, then she would then do something I hadn't thought possible: she would turn me back into a human.

The battles which followed were epic in nature. Aided by the one who would later show me the basics of dealing with Kai, Meme Oshino, a negotiator by nature devoted to remaining truly neutral in the conflicts between Kais, I had managed to recover each of the stolen limbs. It was during those battles that I learned something disturbing.

For all that I was a newly born vampire with a few combat skills I had picked up over the years from having spent my life with Medaka, in a one on one fight face to face with each of the three exterminators who had spent years of their lives dedicating themselves to eradicating vampires like me, they were no match for me.

And yet these three, so much weaker than me, had managed to take down the then fully powered Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade, a vampire of such age and power that she had once been worshiped as a goddess.

Anshin'in, for all her great power, tended to think of the world in terms more appropriate in Shounen Jump and other comics designed to appeal to the dramatic imagination of teenage boys. She thought of Medaka as a 'Main Character', a person whom would never lose, and thought the only way she could win was to arrange the circumstances so that she could simply make someone else heroic enough to stand against her.

She had chosen me for that role. Unfortunately, in doing so, she revealed her ignorance of my circumstances to me, all while making me her enemy.

Anshin'in had once commented that all she had to do was wait for three years and then all of her foes would move on, going into their own stories and living their own lives. She had listed genres like rom-coms, mysteries, gags, and sports. But she hadn't realized that I was already living in another genre:

Horror.

I don't know if her words were just metaphors, or if she actually believed life could be so easily classified by the rules displayed in shounen comics. Maybe she was just being incredibly genre savvy, or maybe she was just being delusional. However, even if she was right, and everything could be anticipated by the hazy guidelines of vague story lines and general plots, her greatest mistake was assuming that everyone else's genres had the same rules as the ones she was used to.

In horror, everyone can die. No one is truly safe, no one has plot armor so thick they can wade through the story untouched. The main character, the main character's best friend, the chief antagonist; all of them could die. In fact, the greater a person's power, the more invulnerable they appear, the more likely they are to fall. And in horror, even if the final confrontation with the last monster appears to be face to face, there is always another monster waiting hidden in the wings.

All it had taken for me to kill Anshin'in was for her to appear before me and carelessly step into the shadow I cast. From there it had only taken a moment for Shinobu's fangs to find her throat; Shinobu, who was once known as the 'Kai Killer', a vampire so monstrous she could even feed on the power of spirits and demons. Shinobu had only had to drink enough from the startled skill user to render her quadrillion abilities useless, and the the once immortal Anshin'in was no different from any other normal girl.

It was a tactic we had used several time in order to immobilize various Kai who had threatened us before in the past. A particularly annoying bakeneko, a ghost cat, had learned just how effective Shinobu's powers were when it came to stopping the powers of others.

From there, Anshin'in could only watch as Shinobu then drank enough from me to take me to the very brink of death. When there was only a fraction of my humanity left, when I was the closest I had ever come to being a vampire since I had regained my humanity, I had finished the task.

It didn't seem right to have Shinobu do it. Anshin'in had been my enemy, not hers. Just the thought of having Shinobu kill for me had made me feel like I was using her unfairly. And unlike the ghost cat that had disappeared from the human it had been possessing after it had lost enough power, Anshin'in wasn't a spirit that had to be vanquished. She had been an enemy, a human, and if I had left her alive then she would have eventually recovered. Who knows what she might have done if that had happened. Come after me again, this time properly prepared for what I truly was? Or maybe having learned of the existence of creatures which truly weren't human tried to incorporate them into the Flask Plan in the future?

Somehow, I didn't even see her reforming her ways as a viable option.

So I had finished the job Shinobu started, and drained her dry on the third floor of Hakoniwa Academy, not too far from the Student Council room for that matter. And afterwards…

I had told Naze that I hadn't needed any help disposing of a corpse. It was the truth. I had had to get rid of the corpse myself, in true vampire fashion…

I pulled myself out of my grim memories. It did no good to focus on them. Even worse, they brought to mind something else which had happened today, something which I had nearly forgotten during the excitement that had occurred when I had been confronted by the Student Council.

I forced myself to focus on the manga in my lap, forced myself not to think about how despite the darkness I had no problem making out the words of the page, not to think about what it meant for a vampire to dispose of a body they had drained…

And above all else, I forced myself not to think about what it meant that just being in Kikaijima's presence had been enough to make me ravenous.


	3. Chapter 3

Those Who Love Monsters

Chapter Three

_Author's notes: Alright, maintaining an every other day kind of schedule here. That's good for me. Just two more chapters left, and I'm aiming to be finished by Halloween at the latest in order to keep up with the mood of the season._

_Now, onto a few notes._

_First off, a lot of curiosity if I would be introducing any of the other Bakemonogatari characters. Sadly, I just don't see how I could without making this into a lot longer of a story then I intended. One of the defining characteristics of Bakemonogatari is the intensely developed characters and the intricate interactions between them. It's one of the reasons the series never got very popular, I think. Entire episodes have gone by where it was just two characters talking to each other, and while I can find that kind of thing interesting if done right, I'm willing to understand why others may not find it as riveting._

_That being said, trying to include that kind of interaction would just make a story that's alright straddling the line of being perfunctory into something which would be down right railroading. Because of that, I chose to only include one real character from Bakemonogatari: Shinobu._

_That and kind of squeeze Shiranui into a semi adjusted Hanekawa role. A bit of a nod to Hanekawa, seeing as her 'Black Hanekawa' arc of the anime was actually my favorite one._

_In a way, it might be more accurate to say that this is a Medaka Box/Kizumonogatari crossover instead of a Bakemonogatari story. I drew heavily from the prequel for the Shinobu scenes, so heavily in fact that I have to wonder if I should be putting up spoiler alerts for those who haven't read the actual story or are trying to save them selves for the movie next year. In fact..._

_*Spoilers*_

_This has a heck of a lot of Kizumonogatari in it, and if you don't like that it might be a good idea not to read to the end of the chapter. If you want to read Kizumonogatari first, type in 'Baka' and 'Tsuki in your search engine and you should be able to find a totally sweet site with a ton of translations._

_*End Spoiler*_

_There. That being said, since Bakemonogatari usually focuses on one particular character for arc, you could just as easily say this is a bakemonogatari crossover with a Shinobu focus, and that would work out just fine as well._

_Another thing that comes up is Medaka herself. Medaka Box tends to be almost a deconstruction of the typical 'love all others and try to help people be their best selves' type genre, with Medaka being an example so perfect that she actually becomes flawed for being that way. Part of what makes Medaka Box interesting is the heroic flaws which stem naturally from Medaka's personality._

_However, since I don't have time to go into that in TWLM, she does kind of come off as a bit of a bitch. If you're interested enough in seeing how the real character acts, by all means hunt down the actual series. I like to think I'm not going completely out of character with Medaka, but considering the briefness of my background description of her, I might just be displaying her out of context too. Heck, I actually like Medaka. She really is an interesting character to follow in the original series._

_That being said, prepare to read a chapter full of Shiranui-esque tomfoolery, meta conversations over-analyzing a person's motives (Which I like to think I pulled off in a very natural Medaka Box fashion) and yet another rendition of sad sad vampires in modern media (which I feel dirty for having written. Really. Best vampire movie to come out in a while was 30 Days of Night)._

_And as always, enjoy!_

*Story Start*

"Things are heating up now, aren't they?" Shiranui giggled, twirling around me as she performed an impromptu ballet with a hoagie sandwich longer then she was tall as a partner. How she managed to spin like that without even a single ingredient falling out from the enormous sub was something I carefully chalked up to 'Mysterious Shiranui Food Power' and dismissed out of hand.

I had met up with my best friend on my way to school, an event which generally didn't happen that often seeing as Shiranui technically lived on the campus and I had a half hour commute to and from the school. The whole situation just reeked of a setup, but I had come to expect that kind of thing from the little meddler, so I welcomed her company anyway.

"Yeah, well whose fault is that?" I grumbled, taking an idle swing at my friend with my school bag. Despite my words and actions, there was no real heat in my response. "So just what's the deal with you selling me out like that, anyway?"

Okay, even if there wasn't real anger, there was definitely curiosity there. I liked to think I knew Shiranui pretty well, and while her deliberately throwing me to the Student Council wasn't completely out of character, seeing as she had literally thrown me to the wolves before (with sausages in hand in order to best serve her love of prop humor) her dealing with Medaka directly was pretty damn unusual, even for Shiranui.

After all, for all that she hid it rather well, one thing I was absolutely sure of in regards to the spritely high schooler chewing away at a six foot hoagie was that Shiranui absolutely did not like Medaka.

"Me?" Shiranui paused in her feast to give me a look so innocent butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, though there was plenty of it smeared along her cheeks at the moment. "Why, Zenkichi! I'm shocked at the accusations! I'm just a humble servant of justice! A pawn for the greater good!"

"Right," I told her, drawing the word out. The only thing drier then my tone and the look I gave her as we continued to walk together to school was the Sahara at noon in midsummer during a drought. "Well, keep your secrets," I told her, shrugging away even my curiosity and facing forward again, shrugging my student brief case higher up on my shoulder as I did so. "I'll look forward to seeing whatever it is you're planning."

"Tee-hee," Shiranui's response was an innocent feminine titter and a look so innocent that if I had seen it on a puppy I would have had to feed it. "Is Hitoyoshi-sama upset that he wasted a good 'That wasn't the first move, that was the last move,' speech?" She took care to deepen her voice and put on a haughty expression which I guess was supposed to be some sort of artistic license with my earlier declaration.

"It would have been the last move if you hadn't gone out of your way to point the Student Council in my direction when they started nosing around what happened to Not Equal," I pointed out, raising an eyebrow at my return.

"You make it seem like they wouldn't have figured it out on their own," Shiranui dismissed, waving a hand idly at me argument. "Are you telling me that the Monster Princess wouldn't have eventually managed to put two and two together?"

"No," I declared bluntly. "She wouldn't have. Medaka had already written me off for good by then. The thought that someone she had dismissed would have been able to do something like that wouldn't have even crossed her mind." I paused, and then gave Shiranui a lidded look from the corner of my eye. "And don't call her that any more, would you?"

"You seem pretty certain about that," Shiranui pursed her lips, before her tongue darted out to collect a mixture of what was probably mustard and ketchup from her lips. "Aren't you the one usually talking about how Medaka is always right in the end?" Then her eyes narrowed and she gave me a sly look from the corner of her eyes as well. "And why shouldn't I call her the 'Monster Princess'? Don't tell me poor Zenkichi-kun is still all love struck with his dear Medaka-chan?"

"Medaka would have never even thought of me without someone pointing it out to her," I rolled my eyes as my tiny partner listened to my response. "Remember? She had already written me off by then. For her to think that it was me would have meant she would have had to first think that she had been wrong in the first place. Even if someone would eventually point it out to her, without any kind of evidence she would have ignored it. Even entertaining the thought would have required her to think badly about someone, after all."

It would have been the perfect cover. Medaka was a genius, of that there was no doubt. More than that, by Medaka's very nature, she was someone who might just surpass the very definition of 'genius'. Medaka's abnormality, her original one anyway, was called 'The End'. In a way, it could be said to complete the set when it came to the Kurokami family. Just like Maguro and Naze, Medaka's older siblings, possessed intense analyzing abilities, 'The End' could be said to be the pinnacle of the class. It allowed her to understand and then fully master any discipline she saw, even including other abnormalities. Throughout her childhood Medaka had made a name of herself by utilizing her abnormality to surpass everyone around her. She had a list of professionals which was probably a mile long that she had almost coincidentally destroyed.

There was even this one mathematician who had spent years of his life trying to complete a theoretic physics problem. He had been hired to be Medaka's tutor when she was still in Junior High. He spent under a week teaching the young Medaka.

In that time, she had completed the problem which had eluded his entire professional life.

Medaka had been awarded an enormous amount of prize money for her contribution to the scientific community. I don't think she knew this, but I had actually looked into what had happened to the mathematician about a year ago:

He had been committed to an asylum, and then had killed himself.

Despite that enormous genius, there were still points where Medaka had blind spots. It was almost as though she looped all the way around from genius to arrive back at stupid at points. For instance, she had once dressed in what I suspected was a borrowed furry outfit simply because she was trying to find a lost dog. She had thought it would make her more approachable to the missing canine.

That, incidentally, had been the same case where Shiranui had stood gleefully by and watched me be mauled a by murderous beast.

It was those blind spots I had tried to duck into. It wouldn't have even been that hard. Sure, Medaka might have classified me as unimportant, but even the rest of the Student Council wouldn't have once thought that I might actually have been involved in whatever had happened to Anshin'in. I was just a normal, after all. There was no way someone without a skill, be it abnormal or minus, could stand up to someone who had over a quadrillion abilities. Moreover, Medaka was someone who naturally thought the best of people as well. She was a person who instantly attributed all the negative aspects of a person's personality to some kind of trauma or incident in the past, rather than just assume they were good for nothing. In my case, the person she had known nearly her entire life, she would have just assumed that without any known incident there was no way I might have been involved.

After all, by having already reevaluated me as a person devoid of interest, there would be no way I might have a negative trait that might have needed reform.

But it wasn't like that mattered anymore.

"And the reason I don't like you calling her that is because it's an insult to all the real monsters out there," I added, answering Shiranui's last taunt as well. "Besides, it's not even possible for me to be 'love struck' or anything like that when it comes to Medaka."

"Oh?" Shiranui drawled, and with one last bite managed to finish her 'walk to school' snack. "Well, I suppose you would be the expert when it came to monsters." She shrugged, not bothering to elaborate on something we both knew already. "But are you really sure you should be making claims like that last one? If I didn't know any better it would sound like you're saying you aren't attracted to little Ms. 'Perfect Body Exhibitionist' Princess." Shiranui's eyes lit up and she skipped ahead so she could start walking backwards, staring up at me with sparkling eyes. "Unless of course you aren't! After all, you did have Akune-sempai working with you as well, and even I could appreciate getting my teeth into a fine piece of meat like that!"

"Not happening," I told her bluntly, brining my free hand down in a playful karate chop on her forehead. Shiranui gave a comical flinch, going cross eyed as she gave my mock attack a glare. "Even if he is a disgusting pretty boy, when it comes down to it his tits aren't big enough for me."

"Curses," Shiranui muttered, snapping her finger in regret. "I suppose I should have known better. You always did have a thing for the busty ones." With the sigh of a defeated fangirl, the tiny girl reached behind her and when her hand came back it was with her usual bucket of chicken, drawn from just wherever it was she hid those kinds of things. "And what do you mean 'not even possible'?" she returned to the previous topic, giving me a doubting look. "For a confirmed mon-com like you, I would have thought that the Princess would have been right down your strike zone. Oh," once more Shiranui's eyes lit up and she plastered a grin reminiscent of a shark before it drew blood. "Don't tell me you tried before? Did the pretty little princess shoot you down? Did she say something like, 'I can't answer your feelings. I won't belong to a single person,' or something like that?"

"That's what she said to Akune back in middle school when he tried to ask her out," I corrected Shiranui, a sardonic grin on my face when I remembered my sempai's dejection at the rejection. That was back when we were still fighting like cats and dogs, so the whole scene had put a smile on my face for nearly a week afterwards. "When I asked her out, she didn't even notice." I paused, and then continued, a puzzled look on my face. "And what the hell's a mon-com?"

"Monster Complex!" Shiranui chirped, eyes shut from the size of her beaming smile. "It's like a siscon, or a lolicon, only instead of sisters and little girls, Zenkichi-kun can only be attracted to monsters! Women of power, and ferocity! To only be turned on by people so far above hideously strong that even calling it a power-complex falls utterly short!"

"Stop making up fetishes for me!" I told her sternly. Despite my attempt at correcting my best friend's assumptions about my love life, I couldn't help but shift uncomfortably. "And it's not like the only people I'm attracted to are over powered freaks."

"Ohhhhh?" Shiranui's knowing look told me that I wasn't fooling anyone, and I glanced to the side awkwardly, scratching the back of my head as I shifted. Perhaps knowing that she was going to win this argument, she graciously changed the subject back to something a little less uncomfortable. "So you did ask out the Princess before?" Okay, maybe not that less uncomfortable. "So what happened? Did she shoot you down in flames?"

"Nah," I shook my head, pursing my lips at the memory. "Like I said, she didn't even notice."

"Why?" Shiranui prodded me, both verbally and by poking at my side with one grubby finger covered in chicken grease. I brushed at my white uniform, hoping that she hadn't left a stain where she had wiped her hand on me. "Were you too subtle when you asked?"

"I asked her to her face if she wanted to go on a date," I recalled, my eyebrows knitting as I recalled the scenario.

"Nope," Shiranui nodded her head firmly. "Not too subtle at all. So what did she do?"

"She told me that every day had a different date and I should be more specific." Shiranui snorted, and I rolled my eyes. "Then I said no, I was asking her to go out with me."

"And then she shot you down?" Shiranui prompted, tossing a clean white chicken leg bone into a nearby garbage bin, making the shot despite being nearly twenty yards from the bin itself.

"Not quite," I shook my head again. "She said we had to finish the school day before we could go anywhere."

"Ouch," Shiranui said, though her tone of voice was less sympathetic and more schadenfeaude. "Twice in a row!" I shook my head, continuing.

"Then I told her to her face that I really liked her." I grimaced at the memory. It had been an awkward but sincerely delivered line.

"And?" Shiranui prompted eagerly.

"She told me that she was glad, because she liked me and everyone else as well," I summed the final words of the long distant exchange briefly.

"And three strikes!" Shiranui declared, briefly waving her free arm, the one holding a half eaten chicken wing the way an umpire would do when declaring a batter out. "God, you're right! Sometimes the Princess is so smart she loops right back around to dumb!" Laughing at my misfortune, Shiranui began to skip daintily along beside my longer steps. "So then what happened?"

"Well," I began, giving Shiranui a wry smile. "Actually, that was the day I met you."

Shiranui actually paused mid skip, her expression stiffening as she nearly toppled mid bite. "Oh?" It only lasted for a second, before she recovered, her expression turning sly once more. "So in order to recover from your horrific failure, you decided that you would go around peeking at the panties of young innocent maidens like me?" She put both hands to her cheeks, feigning an embarrassed expression. "Oh, Zenkichi-kun. You etchi!"

I snorted, rolling my eyes again. "You had both your hands full of hamburgers and were so busy eating that you couldn't even be bothered to push your skirt down when a wind blew it up. I should be the one who's complaining about that incident: a troublesome breeze showed me something that I didn't want to see."

"Now, now," Shiranui clucked, shaking her head mockingly. "You'll never get a girl with that kind of attitude, Zen-chan." She paused, and gave me yet another look from the corner of her eyes. "But then again, maybe I shouldn't be saying things like that. After all, if that was the day you met me then it was also the day you met HER, wasn't it?"

It was a line that was delivered in an offhand tone. Despite her apparent nonchalance, I knew Shiranui well enough to see through her act. The tip off was her eating. The whole conversation she had been consuming her ever present meals in a manner that could be found on any student in the world. The next bite she unleashed on her piece of chicken was different: a savage move more akin to some predator on a prairie tearing chunks out of freshly captured and still struggling prey.

"Yeah," I nodded, my tone nostalgic. "It was the first day of summer break, our freshmen year of Junior High."

"And you claim you're not a mon-com," Shiranui teased. This time, I didn't bother to correct her. After all, she had been the only one to ever learn what had happened during that summer break. Hell, she had even been involved in it, if only briefly.

"It doesn't really matter," I told her, ignoring her cheap shot and returning the conversation back to Medaka. "I got over it. It's not like Medaka even understands 'love' anyway. There's no point in getting upset over someone like that making a misunderstanding."

"Zenkichi-kun just said something juicy," Shiranui noted, leaning forward as she continued her savage eating. "Someone trying to cover up the bitter feeling of rejection by blaming the one they asked out?"

"Not at all," I corrected her, shaking my head. "Medaka has always been different." It wasn't an opinion, it was a fact. "She has always been separate from humanity by her abnormality. Even though she's always tried to understand people, even though she's done her best to love all of humanity, in the end the best she can do is imitate."

It was one of her favorite tricks, after all, to appear behind people and assume the exact same position as them. For someone who didn't understand Medaka, the act might be amusing. For me, who knew that it wasn't just a joke and was actually her trying to understand through imitation, it was almost something sad to see.

"Because if she could really understand love, then she wouldn't have made you her enemy?" Shiranui added, her assured claim denying me even the illusion of denying her accurate conclusion. Wordlessly, I nodded. Taking another savage bite of her chicken, Shiranui continued. "And despite the fact that she trampled all over you, you still went ahead and made her your enemy anyway, why?"

"Because even if she doesn't return it, I still love her," I admitted, my eyes drifting to the sidewalk ahead of me as I walked. For all she had done, for all the madness and insanity she had put me through, it didn't change the fact that I loved Medaka. No matter who it was, no one could completely resist her. Even if they hated her, or made her their enemy, there wasn't a soul alive that couldn't ignore her, not completely. Even Shiranui, who disliked Medaka intensely, couldn't completely write her off. For me, who had spent most of my life beside her, who understood her even better then she understood herself, dislike wasn't an option, and so despite everything I continued to love Medaka.

Shiranui snorted. "You know, I keep hearing people talk about our friendship," she noted, sounding pensive herself. "They always talk about how weird it is that we get along, or how twisted the two of us act. But even with all that, I still have to say the most unhealthy relationship Zenkichi has is still with that Monster Princess."

"Don't call her that," I corrected her automatically, glancing over to my companion, before freezing. "Shiranui," I began, my voice deceptively calm. "What are you wearing?"

At some point when I had glanced away the smaller girl had somehow pulled out a fedora with a large card tucked into the fold which read 'press'. She had pulled out her little notepad and was busy scribbling in it frantically, while from her wrist hung an old fashioned cassette using tape recorder. Hanging from her lip was a small white wing bone, which she puffed on as though it were a cigarette.

"Wearing?" Shiranui asked, once more the very picture of innocence. "Don't mind that," she told me, shrugging dismissively. "I just have to make sure that I get all the quotes down."

"Quotes?" I repeated, my eyes narrowing as I palmed my forehead. "From all the questions you've been asking?"

"Yup!" Shiranui chirped, nodding with immense dignity.

"Questions as though you were 'interviewing' me?" I prompted, needing further clarification.

"Yup!" Shiranui repeated, the slow grin spreading across her face the very picture of malice. "An interview! As in an "Interview with a…."

She didn't get to finish her latest obvious shot at my pseudo-species as she was too busy dodging my swipe with my briefcase. The chase that ensued managed to get the both of us to school a good half hour early.

*Scene Break*

Say this about all my time in the Student Council, but for all the trouble I had constantly found myself involved in, for all the super powered abnormals and minuses which had pushed me to the edge physically and mentally, it had been enough for me to forget about the annoyances of being just a regular student.

I suppressed a growl as I tried desperately to shift the garbage bags in my arms in such a way that wouldn't cause any of them to spill the noxious contents which had built up in them. It had been nearly a week now since I had become a member of the general population of Hikoniwa Academy, and it appears that in some sort of bizarre commemorative tradition for my return to the less distinguished ranks just about every teacher in the Academy had taken to asking me to do the most disgusting and disliked tasks that they could of students as often as they could.

So far I've had to change more week old coffee filters, do more cafeteria garbage duty, and clean so many revolting chemical spills and science class mishaps that I was beginning to wonder if maybe there was some kind of school wide janitor strike that the teachers were trying to cover up through the use of unpaid student labor.

Grunting again, I did my best to keep the five bags I'd been asked to take out to the furnaces out back all upright and with their contents safely within them. Two of them had nothing more annoying then shredded papers in them, but I think one of them was composed of eighty percent snotty tissues, and the last three were apparently the final resting places for either a family of rodents who had tired of life, or improperly preserved dissection specimens which had been tossed out for being too rancid.

Maybe it was just a throwback of my time when I had still been a part of the Student Council. Medaka had always been firm about accepting all requests, a fact which most of the population of the Academy knew and took advantage of, and even if I was no longer a member there might still be some sort of lingering expectation that I would be just as naturally willing to take on the same kind of disgusting and imposing tasks upon request.

What happened to my high school life, I couldn't help but wonder to myself? Wasn't this supposed to be a time of rebellion for most students? A time for young adults to go and indulge in pointless rambunctiousness, skipping out on chores to spend time messing around with their friends? Shouldn't I be out engaging in embarrassing romantic high jinks, or maybe battling it out with pompadour haired punks who only spoke in informal patterns and carried around bokkens that they had no idea how to use?

Oh, wait. We did have those for a bit. They were some of the first to taste Medaka's reformation wrath, and now spent most of their time actually trying to learn how to use those bokkens they used to mess around with properly.

Actually, maybe I was looking at this the wrong way. After all, haven't I had enough excitement of the irregular kind already? I mean, yeah, we were fighting life and death battles over stopping the faculty from experimenting on the other students, or engaging in political infighting to keep the students from killing each other in genocidal campaigns of mass mediocrity, but doesn't that count towards dealing with high school delinquents in a way?

And it wasn't exactly like I was looking for romance at the moment. I already had enough women in my life to cause me problems anyway.

Well, that and if I did get out of line you never knew just when someone might put in a Medaka request about me personally, and if that happened then all my efforts would have been for nothing.

And so because of my careful efforts to maintain my image as a model student, I was now stuck trying to juggle nearly a half dozen bags down to the furnace instead of going home. It was a Saturday, so school only had the customary half day instead of a full one, and I had been planning to hit a bookstore or two before I retired back to the abandoned cram school for some light reading. The newest issue of Halloween should be out today, and they had been hinting for months about a new 'Tomie' publication coming out.

Of course, it was the moment that the thought about me being lucky crossed my mind that I naturally had to finally lose control of one of the bags, the thing careening out of my arms as I tried to take a turn too quickly and falling to burst all over the floor, littering the hallway with rubbish.

With a groan, I resigned myself to having to wait to see the new adventures of the undying killer school girl, and also having to find some way to fit all the newly disbursed garbage into the already full bags without causing any of the rest of them to follow the first one's example.

I'm just glad the one that did break was one of the ones filled with harmless paper. That would make it a great deal less disgusting to try and pick up.

It was while I was standing there, trying to figure out the best way to fix the mess in front of me, that I clearly heard the voice of Akune as he said, "Well, I guess that explains a few things about Hitoyoshi-kun."

I froze, desperately glancing around, trying to figure out just where the voice was coming from. It was obviously the Secretary of the Student Council, and it was just as obvious that he was talking to someone else. If he was walking through the hallway with someone else from the Council, then I could just imagine how awkward it would be to find the person they were talking about standing over a pile of scattered garbage.

Then again, I wasn't exactly above using the opportunity to push the whole mess on them. If Medaka was around I could once more make use of her accommodating nature to ditch this chore and make it to my comic vender in time.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't what she meant when she told me that I was better off under her protection, but sometimes the best place to hide from a giant was in their shadow.

It took nearly a minute before I realized that despite what I had heard there was no one coming. I couldn't hear their voices anymore. I was about to shrug it off and put it down to bizarre school accustics when I clearly heard a new voice, this time Kikaijima, say, "You didn't really do that to Hitoyoshi-kun, did you Medaka-chan?"

Whirling around again, I finally managed to locate where the voices were coming from. It turned out the reason I hadn't seen them appear down the hallway was because they weren't in the hallway.

They weren't even in the same wing as me, for that matter.

Directly across from the window I had come to a stop from was a clear view across the massive courtyard that lay in the middle of Hakoniwa Academy to the Student Council window. Arrayed within was the entire gathered Student Council, plus Maguro and Naze again. It took me a moment to realize that I could make out their mouths moving in conversation, but for some reason I couldn't hear them as I had only seconds ago.

The moment I understood that they were too far away to hear through two panes of glass, I had time for a moment of curiosity where I wondered why it was I had made out those two phrases, a thought which led to me wondering just what they were saying about me.

And after that thought, I realized that I COULD hear what they were saying, as though they were no more than a few feet away from me.

"It's almost terrifying," Akune continued, leaning against a desk, his voice pensive as he spoke. "To think that Hitoyoshi-kun even though it looked like it was surrender, that day he was actually declaring a victory."

"It doesn't exactly look like a victory to me," Kikaijima protested, glancing over to where the Secretary was standing before looking back to Medaka. "Uhhh," she began, addressing the President, before trailing off. "Um," she tried again. "Medaka-chan? Are you, you know, okay?"

Despite myself, I couldn't help but think that no, Medaka certainly did not look alright at the moment. Though she was seated at her customary position at the President's desk, she had none of her usual poise that she displayed while she was working. Instead she had both arms thrown forward as she slumped down, laying face first on the desk, looking as though she were ignoring the world. I could almost make out a metaphorical black cloud hanging over the slumping President's head.

I was just in the middle of wondering what she was doing when I noticed what was in her hand, and I had to suppress a wince.

There, looking so innocent in her clutches, was the very same cassette recorder that Shiranui had been employing for her absurd prop humor this morning.

For a moment I held the absurd hope that it was a completely different out of date recording device that only looked identical to the one I had seen before. Then Medaka's hand twitched, pressing what was probably the rewind button before she pushed down on the play button.

"'Three strikes!'" Shiranui's voice came out of the tiny player. "'God, you're right! Sometimes the Princess is so smart she loops right back around to dumb!'" The quality of the recording wasn't that great, but even scratchy the sound of Shiranui's laughter definitely still had the same mocking tone it had earlier.

My eyelid twitched. Okay. That was it. If all of reality were to restart itself from scratch, holding the memory of this first time through, then even with two eternities there would never be another person even close to contending with Shiranui for the title of 'Worst Best Friend Ever".

Medaka pressed the stop button on the cassette, and in my imagination the metaphoric cloud over her head grew even larger and darker.

"But it almost was a victory," Akune replied to Kikaijima, while giving the slumped Medaka a worried glance. "Even if Shiranui's help might be a little double edged, if she hadn't pointed it out then Hitoyoshi would have been right. We never would have even suspected him."

Medaka's fingers twitched again, once more adjusting the place of the cassette, before the play button was hit again. "'So in order to recover from your horrific failure, you decided that you would go around peeking at the panties of young innocent maidens like me?'" Shiranui taunted once more, and the imaginary cloud around Medaka's body began to sport lightning bolts in my head.

"But Hitoyoshi-kun wasn't even fighting! Remember, he had already apologized in front of the entire school body!" Kikaijima protested, looking torn between arguing the point Akune was brining up and trying to do something about Medaka. Leaning in, still looking helplessly on at the collapsed President. "And shouldn't we do something about that? I've never seen Medaka like this before!"

I had, though I was honestly surprised to see her acting like this again. The last time I had seen her this bad was after Shiranui had beat her out for the title of 'Best Model'. That had been months ago by this point, and it wasn't something I had seen from her since she had begun getting involved with the shady underside of the school.

Still, I had trouble actually believing the scene before me: Medaka was depressed! It had been so long since I had seen her like this that I had actually believed that she had evolved beyond the point of being able to feel that emotion.

"That's just why he almost won," Maguro added, looking serious as he leaned against a wall, one hand up and stroking his chin. It was a testament to how seriously he was taking the conversation that he wasn't in the middle of trying to molest Medaka in her inactive state. "Not only had Zenkichi-kun managed to strike what was most likely a lethal blow against Not Equal, effectively destroying them completely, but he managed to do it right before he had been dismissed as a threat. By not calling attention to it, he was keeping anyone who might want to move in reaction to his acts from responding even if they wanted to. It would have been a flawless victory, a chance to have his cake and eat it too."

Maguro shook his head, and despite his somberness I could make out a small smile forming on his face. "It looks like this time even I underestimated Zenkichi-kun."

"It's not that uncommon a tactic," Naze-sempai picked up the conversation. The leer on her face was a perfect offset to her gritty voice. It seemed that someone in the room was at least appreciating my near victory. "Zen-chan wouldn't be the first one to use non violent resistance tactics."

"[Maybe]," Kumagawa broke in, his voice as cheerful as the fake smile plastered on his face. "[But it's not just a matter of Zenkichi-chan resisting peacefully. After all, he didn't use these tactics until after he had already made a move against Anshin'in-san. By surrendering only afterwards, you could say that he was denying Medaka-chan the chance to reform him for the act]."

"It might just be the first time I've ever seen someone use peaceful resistance aggressively," Maguro added, nodding his head at Kumagawa's summation of my tactics.

"But isn't this a good thing?" Kikaijima interjected, looking around the rest of the room hopefully. "After all, the threat of Not Equal is over now! Without Anshin'in, the Flask Plan won't be restarted, and now we don't have to fight against each other anymore. We could even ask Hitoyoshi to come back to the Council now! I mean, if he managed to do something like this, then doesn't that mean that maybe Me-" she froze mid word, hesitating only for a half second before she continued, "WE were wrong about him?"

No one called her on her slip, but everyone knew whose name she was going to use before she had changed it to 'we'. I couldn't help but shake my head, watching as Kikaijima continued to try and mend fences in the Council.

It was a moment later, when I realized that my gaze was still lingering on the Treasurer, that I felt my stomach tighten in a way which was uncomfortable. I wrenched my gaze away from the girl, and focused instead on Akune, who was already shaking his head in response to Kikaijima's peacemaking attempts.

"Even if the threat Not Equal and Anshin'in represented is over, that doesn't mean this is done. It's not even close." For all that Akune was a consummate fighter, a reformed delinquent of the highest order, it didn't change the fact that he was still considered a special. His intellect was far above average, truly the cream of the crop of humanity.

"Because even if Zenkichi surrendered," Medaka broke in, raising her head for the first time and displaying her face where I could see it, "nothing is resolved." Despite the firmness of her tone, her expression was firmly set in a pout, her cheeks puffed as she gave the cassette player in her hand a childish glare. It looked that even though she was still upset she was at least ready to rejoin the conversation at large.

At least it looked that way, until Kumagawa casually plucked the cassette out of her hand, fingering the fast forward button for a moment until again hitting the play button.

"'You know, I keep hearing people talk about our friendship,'" Shiranui noted from the player. "'They always talk about how weird it is that we get along, or how twisted the two of us act. But even with all that, I still have to say the most unhealthy relationship Zenkichi has is still with that Monster Princess.'"

Instantly, Medaka collapsed back down into seat, the motion so sudden that I heard a 'crack' noise where her skull met the wood of the desk and the wood came out second place in a contest of thickness.

"Since when is Zenkichi that close to that Shiranui," I heard her mumble, and I sighed as I realized that earlier I had been mistaken about what it was that was bothering her. I had honestly been worried that she was depressed because of some of the things I had said during that conversation. It was a long standing habit to use Shiranui as a sounding board whenever I needed to vent something about Medaka's latest misadventures. I tended to really cut loose whenever I did something like that, and this time in particular I hadn't exactly held back either.

Despite all that, it wasn't depression over hearing my opinion of her that was getting to Medaka. It looked like instead she was depressed at the implication that my relationship with the smaller girl was in some way better than the one I had with Medaka herself.

In Medaka's eyes, it didn't matter that she had turned away from me. It wouldn't be the first time she had done so when someone failed to live up to her expectations of them. There had been an incident with Akune involving calligraphy where she had done the same, and the moment Akune had corrected his mistake she had welcomed him back with a smile. In Medaka's eyes, the failure of the treasure hunt had already been dismissed, and the only reason I hadn't already returned to her side was because I was still an enemy she needed to fight.

It was such a simple assumption, something she had already come to her own natural conclusions about in her head.

It was a mistake. Like I had said earlier, the title 'Monster Princess' wasn't something the exemplary Medaka deserved. In the end, she was only human after all.

"[It's like Medaka-chan said]," Kumagawa continued, smiling happily at having sent Medaka back down to the table with the press of a button. Even if he had reformed, Kumagawa was still a minus, a person who exemplified all the negative aspects of a human to the point of having acquired a near supernatural ability. He always was the kind of person who enjoyed getting to others, and it looked like he was shamelessly taking advantage of the openings I had made in Medaka's psyche. "[Nothing is really resolved. The only way to describe Zenkichi-chan's actions at the moment are as 'those of an enemy']."

"What do you mean?" Kikaijima asked, exasperated equally at the way everyone else in the room seemed to be grasping something which was eluding her while simultaneously ignoring her own calls for reconciliation. "I just don't see anything like that here at all!"

"It's because Zenkichi-kun is going out of his way to deliberately avoid a confrontation," Maguro explained. "He's never had any problem with confronting people before. If anything, he's always been absurdly direct in his handling of problems. But despite that, after his first angry encounter with Medaka-chan, he hasn't once let himself get drawn into another fight."

"Instead, he tried to make Medaka fail," Naze added, her grin still like that of a piranha. "If he had succeeded, then he would have permanently been the one that Medaka had failed to reform, who in fact would have never even been realized as someone that needed to be reformed. It would have been a total victory, one so complete that only he would ever even know it had occurred. And now that he's been revealed, he's already proven that he'd even go so far as to use the suggestion box to keep anyone from confronting him. Even if Medaka tried to confront Zen-chan then all he would have to do is put another request to get her to leave him alone. He can, as he put it before, hide under her protection."

"[It's something that would have gone along great in Class Minus Thirteen]," Kumagawa added, still smiling as he played with the cassette player. "[So long as Medaka can't reform him, then he's already won]." It was a tactic he had tried to use himself, after the fight between Naze and Shibushi, when he had almost left the school in response to a bet on the outcome of the match.

"He said it himself," Akune added, his face solemn. "For him, the most important thing to do to an enemy is destroy them, not fight them. In this case, even if he's effectively hiding, it doesn't matter. If I were to guess, I'd say that Hitoyoshi just doesn't care what the consequences to himself are, so long as he gets his victory parameters. He was willing to kill himself in order to take out Kumagawa, after all."

"It doesn't matter," Medaka declared, finally dragging herself up from her slouched position. With one of her trade mark moves, she pulled her fan out from her cleavage, snapping it open and holding it in front of her mouth in her usual pose. "Regardless of how he chooses to resist, I will not rest until Zenkichi has been set straight from the crooked path he is following!"

"You make it sound like it's not your fault this is happening at all," Kikaijima muttered, and despite the great distance between us, I was sure I was the only one who heard her whispered statement, or the resentment it was uttered with. "You know," she began in a more audible voice. "There is a way this whole thing could be ended."

"Good," Medaka nodded, giving a praising glance towards the other girl. "It's time that we start thinking more about solutions instead of the problem. What do you recommend, Treasurer Kikaijima?"

"You could always just apologi-" the other girl began, her eyebrow twitching as she started to say the most sensible thing I'd heard in that conversation so far before she was interrupted.

"He's watching us," Naze interjected, her voice overriding Kikaijima, the bandaged girl's hand coming up to point directly at me. I froze, realizing belatedly that just like I had been able to see across the courtyard at them, they too could probably make me out where I stood leaning against the window pane, listening intently. "And he looks angry as well."

It was the second part of Naze-sempai's statement which caused me to focus on the glass in front of me, and the faint reflection held within. The conditions weren't perfect, but this close I could make out the flash of red in my eyes, right before they faded away back to their original blue. I refocused on the window across from me, and even though I could make out the startled expression on Akune's face, I could no longer hear the words he was apparently speaking.

Without a word, I turned away, ignoring the reaction in the room to my unexpected presence, and leaving the trash bags behind me tossed carelessly on the floor.

Let the damn janitors take care of them. I had other things to think about at the moment.

*Scene Break*

"Thou art once more unusually somber, my subordinate," Shinobu noted, giving me a frankly curious look as she did so. "Doest thou wish once more to consult me on some matter?"

"Maybe," I admitted, knowing that my reluctance was a best a delaying action. Normally, I wouldn't even bother with the pretense of hesitation. We both of us knew that there were no secrets between us. There were certain things that two people couldn't go through and not end up with a level of intimacy that would rival even the most intense of lovers, and the things the two of us had endured made even those pale in comparison.

But that didn't mean I couldn't look at the scene in front of me and want to find an excuse to be somewhere else.

"Then thou must join us, servant," Shinobu ordered me imperiously, pointing at an empty chair. "Surely among such esteemed company, thy concerns shall be answered."

I shook my head, trying my best to make sense out of just what it was Shinobu was up to, and more importantly why she was doing it.

The tiny vampire was, of all things, throwing a tea party.

Normally, for a girl her apparent age, the action would be commonplace, not even worth commenting on. However, in this case, the innocent looking creature in front of me was well over five hundred years old. Moreover, to add to the surrealism of the scene, instead of using stuffed animals the vampire had apparently drudged the depths of the abandoned cram school in order to locate the biology wing and had dragged with her a skeleton missing its skull and an anatomy model with only one arm to be her partners. With the impromptu party bathed in the cold moonlight shining down through the enormous hole in the ceiling, the scene was like something out of a nightmare rendition of 'Alice in Wonderland'.

"Well," I began, before finally capitulating. It's not like it would hurt to play along with her games, no matter how bizarre they ended up being. "I suppose one cup wouldn't hurt."

"Excellent," Shinobu praised me, puffing her immature chest as she did so. "Thou shall take thy place at my side, whilst we entertain our visitors appropriately."

And so it was that I did join my master for imaginary cups of warm blood while engaging in witty one sided dialogue with our two unusual visitors. It made for a brief distraction, and though I couldn't help but feel I might have failed as a host to hold up my side of the conversation, the play did give me time to collect my thoughts on what was bothering me.

"Now, now, Mr. Scrumperfield," Shinobu clucked, waving one tiny finger at the skeleton as she did so, "as intriguing as thy efforts to engage the orient in trade might be, isn't it time now that I see to my servant's worries? Is it not ungentlemanly to seek above thy station? Now hush."

"You shouldn't be so hard on him," I murmured, hands clasped around a battered and chipped beaker which had been allotted to me as my saucer. "He has been having problems with the missus, after all."

"Verily, though his marriage might be troubled, it is no concern of mine if he is cuckolded," Shinobu declared, glaring down her tiny nose at the upstart Mr. Scrumperfield. "It is of far more import that I doest give my subordinate guidance in his most troubled of times."

"The thought that my concerns rate above those of a skeleton fills me with joy so profound I lack words to describe it," I told her. Shinobu narrowed her eyes at my flippant response.

"There are none who enjoy the company of a spoilsport," she told me, turning her nose to the side with a huff.

"Sorry, sorry," I surrendered, holding my hands up in surrender. My capitulation seemed to be enough to appease her, and she returned to facing me, cocking her head to the side as she did so.

"Now that tea has been properly seen to, what is it that thou would consult with me about, my servant?" It looked as though Shinobu had finally had enough of her game. I paused, trying to figure out how best to bring up my worries, before finally just blurting it out.

"Every time I'm around someone who's bleeding, I can't stop myself from getting hungry."

It might have been Kikaijima who was the first, but she wasn't the last that had been catching my attention lately. I'd recently discovered that I had apparently invented the disturbing ability to tell exactly which of my female classmates were enduring their uncomfortable feminine issues, a skill which I very much could have done without. More than just that, I could always tell which of my male classmates had recently been injured as well. It was reaching the point where I was afraid to go near the competitive sports clubs. The last time I had tried I had to excuse myself rather quickly in order to find a towel to wipe up the drool I had unconsciously been forming.

Shinobu sat still, watching me patiently. When she realized that I wasn't going to add anything else, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. "And what doest this to do with what troubles thee?"

Honestly, that was probably the reaction I should have expected. It wasn't like Shinobu had any problem with thinking of people as food. Still, I shook my head, and tried to explain why it was that the fact that I was beginning to find my classmates injuries appealing disturbed me.

"Shinobu," I began. "Even if I'm part vampire, I'm still mostly human. I've been like this for nearly three years now, and I've never had this problem. Why is it only now that I'm starting to notice these things?"

Shinobu cocked her head to the side, one hand coming up to cup he chin as she thought about my response. "Ah," she murmured, rubbing her chin contemplatively. "I had thought thy troubles to be thy substitute master, or perhaps thy emergency food supply."

"I wish you wouldn't call Shiranui that," I sighed, knowing just who it was that Shinobu considered to be my emergency food supply.

It didn't even bother me anymore when the vampire called her that. It had less to do with Shinobu being deliberately cruel and more to do with the fact that the tiny vampire never used anyone's name, at all. She had been with me for three years now, and not once had she ever called me anything other than 'servant' or 'subordinate'. It was just one of the quirks of hers that I had gotten used to.

"Hmph," Shinobu shrugged off my correction, not bothering to give it a second thought. "Is this truly the reason for thy discomfort, my servant? Had I not warned thee of this in the past?"

"Warned me of what?" I asked, leaning forward so that I could pay better attention to her words.

"Indeed," Shinobu nodded. "Doest thou not remember? I had told thee in the past that I too was once human. Once I too felt hesitation at eating others. However, I did inform you that if thou ate even one person that thou wouldst not feel it a sin anymore."

She delivered the line with such disinterest that it took me a moment to comprehend what she was saying.

And when I did, it was as though a shock of lightning coursed through me.

She had indeed told me that. How could I ever have forgotten those words to me?

That night, when we first met, it had just been after Medaka had so casually brushed me off without even noticing what I was asking of her. Even if I had learned to be sanguine about it, if the memory no longer hurt, at the time it had happened it had been devastating to me. All awash with hormonal angst I was unfamiliar with, only just having taken my first few steps into puberty, I had come across a beautiful creature that had begged me to give my life to her.

It had been stupid, a ridiculous act by an immature child, but at the time I had thought that if I couldn't be with Medaka, if I was just so unimportant that my feelings weren't even worth being noticed, then maybe it would be alright if my life were to end then and there so long as it could help the creature in front of me survive. If I had never come across the then Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade I would have gotten over it eventually, would have dealt with my immature feelings naturally and gone on to live my life stronger for having been through it.

I wasn't like abnormal or specials, or even minuses for that matter, though. I got angry, and discouraged, and I made mistakes as well.

Thus, I had offered my neck to a vampire, and I had died.

However, it was because I offered my neck to her, that I, a human, had willingly made the ultimate sacrifice to help save her, that Kiss Shot had made me into her subordinate, and then given me the chance to regain my humanity. I had fought for her, regaining her limbs and letting her heal to her full power. We had talked together, afterwards, laughing into the night as we celebrated her revival and my imminent return to humanity, before I had gone to a convenience store to buy some food in an attempt to delay our inevitable parting.

And when I had gotten back, it had been to find Kiss Shot with blood on her lips as she destroyed the body of the human she had just killed.

I had run away from her then, spending a day locked in a school shed to avoid the sun as I realized just what it was I had done by helping her. Kiss Shot was a vampire. No matter how much modern media liked to portray vampires as noble and sympathetic characters, vampires were the enemies of humanity. Kiss Shot didn't need to eat more than once a month, but at over five hundred years that meant she had killed over six thousand people in her time.

And I had saved her life. The exorcists I had fought off, the ones who had nearly succeeded in killing her, were in effect the guardians of mankind doing their absolute best to preserve the species from a predator which fed on it.

And as a vampire, I too was an enemy of mankind.

It was Shiranui who had helped me figure out what to do after that. I had only met the tiny girl the same day I had my first encounter with Kiss Shot, but it was a few days later that I had been going to fight it out with the first of the vampire hunters for Kiss Shot's stolen limbs that I had run into Shiranui again by chance. She had followed along without me knowing, and been dragged into the battles as well. She had been the one who had found a way for me to both stop Kiss Shot despite the massive difference in our powers and a way for me to regain my humanity:

By drinking all of her blood. If a subordinate vampire killed their master in that way, it was possible for them to once more be human.

Kiss Shot had found me the moment the sun had set. She had given me one chance then, to come with her and spend my new undead life at her side. I had rejected it then, too disgusted at the scene I had walked in on, of the thought that I too would have to eat people in order to live in my new undead form.

And here I was, not even three years later, doing exactly what it was that had turned me against Shinobu in the first place.

"Yes," I whispered, my voice course as I recalled the words she had spoken to me before we had battled it out all those years ago. "Yes, you did mention it before, didn't you?"

"Hast thou only now realized this, servant?" Shinobu asked, sounding genuinely puzzled that this revelation had been such a shock to me. In retrospect, she was probably right to be confused. "Surely thou didst consider this before thou committed to thy course against the upstart?"

"Uh," I said, feeling very slow, very stupid, and very normal at the moment. "No, actually. I was too busy thinking about making sure she didn't use one of her ridiculous skills to resurrect herself after I finished her."

I had little doubt that out of the quadrillion skills that Anshin'in had, there had to be at least a few that would allow her to ignore death. She had even given Kumagawa one once, solely as a whim. He had used it to die with impunity after all, overcoming my own attempt on his life with ease. The last thing I had wanted killing her was for Anshin'in to simply use another skill to cheat death and then come back for vengeance.

Suddenly, I felt ill. I had to swallow back bile in order to keep myself from emptying my stomach then and there.

Shinobu sighed, giving me a scolding look. "Truly, thou art indeed an odd guy," she told me, shaking her head as she did so.

"Do you think that might be why I've been so strange lately?" I asked, pressing forward in a rush, trying to pull my mind from the realization that I had apparently destroyed a very important taboo that had been holding back certain biological urges without even realizing it.

"Strange?" Shinobu repeated, once more looking confused.

"Earlier, when I was listening in on the Student Council when I was way too far to be able to hear them," I described, narrowing my eyes as I recalled the bizarre event. "And lately my eyes have been turning red a lot easier than they used to." It would make sense of me losing my temper so easily over that stupid riddle before. I hadn't really thought I was mad enough to make my eyes change at the time, but still they had. "And my shadow has been pretty unusual lately too, for that matter." Vampires didn't cast shadows normally, and added in the fact that Shinobu liked to live in mine and I was no stranger to having mine act unusually.

"Hmmm," Shinobu hummed, stroking her chin again speculatively. Finally she shrugged. "I haven't the faintest of ideas," she admitted bluntly.

"You don't?" I gawked at her, before narrowing my eyes. "Shinobu, are you saying you don't know what's happening?"

"Indeed," Shinobu agreed easily, nodding without a trace of concern on her face. "Do not forget, my subordinate, that even I, in all my years, have never once heard tale of a fate such as ours."

Again, I flinched, as Shinobu once more pointed out something which sent yet another shock through me.

"Oh yeah," I muttered, once more having to suppress a swallow as I remembered just how precarious our connection truly was.

When we had our final confrontation, I had thought that I was being clever when I had come up with the plan to drain Kiss Shot's blood. I had even managed to get the advantage against her, my fangs into her neck and poised to finish her, when Shiranui had once more interfered. Shiranui was always doing that, after all. The girl was just too damned good at figuring people out, about manipulating them.

Shiranui had asked Kiss Shot just what method the vampire had originally intended to use against me, if the only one she had been able to find was for the subordinate to kill the master.

The truth was that there was no other method. Even from the beginning, Kiss Shot had intended for me to kill her.

Vampires rarely lived longer than two hundred years or so. It had nothing to do with biology; it was simply that by that point most vampires just didn't have any reason to live longer. For vampires, ennui and boredom were the greatest of killers. They reached a point where they just didn't feel the urge to continue on, and then most of them simply walked into the sun.

At that point Kiss Shot had been five hundred, having lived more than two and half times the average lifespan of her species. The truth was she had come to Japan to die in the first place. Vampires rarely made subordinates, which had made my presence completely unexpected to the hunters. Vampires didn't make subordinates in order to hunt down stolen limbs or to act as slaves.

In fact, the most common reason for making subordinates was in order to take them as lovers.

The only other subordinate that Kiss Shot had made in her five hundred years had been from Japan, and it was why she had come here for one last visit before she ended her life. Only instead of quietly slipping away as she had planned she had been ambushed, and in a moment of weakness had begged me to save her life. And when I had she had repented her actions and decided to atone by following through on her original intentions by giving her life to return my humanity.

The human who had died to save a vampire and the vampire who had wanted to die to save the human.

Washing blood away with blood.

Only I hadn't wanted to kill her, not like that. It was one when I had thought we were fighting to the death. It was different when someone wanted to die for me in return. Hadn't I given my life for her? Didn't that count for anything? Couldn't there be a way for me to be human and Kiss Shot to survive? Couldn't everyone be happy?

It turned out that there wasn't. But there was a way for everyone to be unhappy.

It had been Meme Oshino, the negotiator who had helped me recover Kiss Shot's limbs in order to help me recover my humanity, who had given me the answer: to drink all but the last drop of Kiss Shot's blood, leaving her a mere shell of her former glory, and myself all but the faintest bit human.

I would not be able to regain my humanity completely, and thus was unhappy. Kiss Shot would be left a fragment of herself, unable to die properly nor able to force me to kill her, and was thus unhappy. And humanity, they would have to deal with the knowledge that both Kiss Shot and I would still exist, that someday Kiss Shot might regain her power and that I would join her as monster that ate humans, and that there would be even more predators then there had once been, and thus humanity was also unhappy as well.

And that was the story of how Shinobu and I had come to exist as we were; a story of lives being twisted, and the two of us coming to be nothing more than spoiled goods.

With those thoughts lingering, I watched as Shinobu turned back to the tea party made out of modeled corpses, rusted desks, and broken beakers. It invoked a feeling like knives in my chest, to see her like this, surrounded by ruin and rot. Shinobu, whom had once been the one most deserving of the title 'Queen of the Vampires', whose very presence humbled all who stood within it.

The words of Oshino came back to me, when I had first begun this farce. 'The disgust you felt for a vampire eating a human could be said to be the same as the disillusionment from seeing the scene of a lovely cat eating a mouse. And you chose to keep a vampire as if it were a pet; to remove her fangs, to declaw her nails, to smash her vocal cords, to neuter her. You, who have been treated as a pet, now treat your master as a pet. This is exactly what's happening now. If you think about it - it's not an impressive tale.'

Truer words have never been spoken.

"Shinobu," I blurted out. "Do you hate me?"

Shinobu blinked, turning away from her tea party once more so that she could give me a confused look. "Why doest thou ask such a thing unprovoked of I?" she asked me, looking childishly bewildered by my unexpected interrogation.

"For this," I answered her vaguely, gesturing at the scene around us. "For me making us like we are."

"Hmmm," Shinobu chewed her lips as she appeared to understand what I was referring to. Looking troubled for a moment, she finally shrugged. "I shall be honest, at first I was most wrought with thee."

"I thought so," I winced, sagging back into my chair. Shinobu ignored my dejection, continuing her answer.

"But truly, though this way of life 'twas unexpected, 'tis not without merit as well." It was my turn to watch her carefully as she fiddled idly with her beaker. "I hast spoken before of my idle life. No matter what I did, in response to the presence of my power I was constantly beset upon by those who sought my life. Because I did naught but fight for my life, before I knew it I had become a legend."

It was something she had spoken of only briefly, the day I had regained her limbs. We had sat for hours, talking of nothing, laughing all along. It was a long conversation where everything we spoke of was met with mirth, and where every topic was a pleasant one. It was perhaps one of the happiest memories I had.

"Though I was put out upon by thy impudence," Shinobu continued, "in turn this state has not been without reward. Never before has there been a period such as these past years, where there was no enemy for me to contend with. Indeed, I have even found some contentment in this state, where even one such as I can spend my time frivolously and without care."

A five hundred year old vampire, one tired of her life of bloodshed and pain, which had spent centuries living a life of alone except for battle, finding contentment enjoying childish games of hopscotch and hosting imaginary tea parties. Despite the incongruity, I found myself relieved at her confession. Even if it had been my selfish actions which had brought us to this point, I was happy that Shinobu could be happy as well.

Because despite the alien mentality of the creature beside me, of the sheer inhumanity that she represented, of the countless loss of life she had brought either through battle or feeding, after everything we had been through together I couldn't help but love her, no matter how strange it might be.

Maybe Shiranui was right. I really was some kind of mon-con.

"Now," Shinobu declared sternly, turning back to the table. "We have kept our guests waiting long enough. T'would be poor manners as hosts to further neglect their attendance."

"I suppose," I grumbled, turning back to the table as well. "Though if Mr. Scrumperfield continues to whine about his wife, I won't be able to hold myself back from challenging him to a duel."

And so a skinless anatomy model, a headless skeleton, a human like vampire, and a vampire like human continued to sip imaginary tea under the moonlight until long into the night.


	4. Chapter 4

Those Who Love Monsters

Chapter Four

_Author's notes: Man, this took longer then I thought. Chapter ended up being nearly twice as long as the others, as you've no doubt already noticed. A lot of rewrites in here too. Too much here could come across as just being reactionary, or childish, or just some kind of demented wish fulfillment if done improperly. I had to borrow direct quotes from a lot of the source material in order to help keep everyone in character despite what was going on._

_That being said, the next chapter should be shorter and easier to write. That's a relief at least._

_Anyway, a few notes to reviewers. A lot of people have been wondering about my rendition of Shinobu. Truthfully, it was really hard to give her dialogue. I don't think she had a single speaking role in the entire animated series. Because of that, I had to draw her speech patterns from Kizumonogatari, and in that one she spoke in archaic forms. She was supposed to have learned Japanese four hundred years ago, so I tried to give her a similar old fashioned way of speaking when I wrote her, but as many grammer nazi's can attest to I don't really know too much about writing with 'thee's and 'thou's. Thus I had to improvise. If you see glaring errors, just chalk it up to vampire speech impediments, and then engage in some willing suspension of disbelief._

_That being said, people have asked me if I was drawing her character from later books. The only book which has any Shinobu time translated in it is Kizumono, but I do know that in one of the later untranslated ones Shinobu proves that she definitely loves Koyomi. Apparently it involves Koyomi and Shinobu accidently traveling to a parallel dimension where Black Hanekawa succeeded in killing Koyomi and Shinobu swore to destroy all humanity in return. She apparently then went about making demonic super zombies and using them to unleash a swarm of death upon the planet._

_I actually really want to find a copy of that one. Zombies are naturally awesome and all._

_That being said, feel free to give the chapter a read. For those of you who have been feeling steadily growing outrage over Medaka playing the role of villain in this story, don't worry. Next chapter is the one where she gets some better press. For now, I think the highlights are Kikaijima and Shiranui both getting some serious impact on the story. _

_That and like thirty pages of nothing but fight scene. Man that took a while._

_So behold, as Shiranui proves she is queen bitch of the world, Kikaijima stands up for the little guy, Kumagawa still fails to make Zenkichi's eyes red, and Akune is revealed to be a secret Twilight fan!_

_Yeah. You read that right._

_If you enjoy it, give me a shout!_

*Story Start*

"Ah," a voice behind me caused me to pause in the act of slipping my outdoor shoes back on. "Hitoyoshi-kun," Kikaijima spoke my name hesitantly as though uncertain what kind of reaction she could look forward to. "Do you have a moment? To talk, I mean."

She sounded so flustered and nervous asking me for something she once used to take for granted that even if I had been holding some kind of grudge against her I wouldn't have had the heart to deny her.

"Well, I was just heading out, but I can stop for a moment if you want," I offered, starting to put away my sneakers in favor of the slippers I had just replaced them with.

"Actually, I was just heading out for the day too," Kikaijima admitted, glancing to the side as she did so and fidgeting with her own student briefcase. "If you don't mind waiting a second, I could walk with you for a bit. I think we go to the same station."

"That would be fine," I admitted with an encouraging smile, one that she answered with a hesitant one of her own. "I'll just wait by the gate for you then."

"Okay!" With a smile which was much surer of itself, Kikaijima hustled off, rushing towards her own locker a few rows down.

It was a bit early in the day for there to be many other students leaving at this point, so I didn't see too many others for the short wait I had until Kikaijima returned, hopping briefly as she tucked one finger into the back of her loafers in order to pull the back up to rest properly against her heel. She made for such an earnest picture, bouncing along while alternating between looking at her foot and checking to see if I really was at the door that I found myself fighting a smile back.

"You know," I began, waiting patiently as she finally caught up to me, before putting the hand holding her case to the wall in order to support herself while she righted her footwear. "It wasn't like I was just going to disappear the moment you weren't looking."

"If you keep teasing me, I'm going to make you pay," she warned me, puffing her cheeks out angrily as she flushed. From anyone else that might be interpreted as a threat, maybe with some kind of implied potential violence behind it.

In Kikaijima's case she was being literal: she really would charge me. I think the standing rate was three hundred yen per infringement.

"Sorry, sorry," I raised my hands in surrender. "I'll be good."

"Hmph," Kikaijima grunted, but looked pleased to have won that argument for a moment before she deflated slightly. "Besides, it's not like that isn't the case these days," she continued, glancing to the side. "Ever since you've left the Student Council it's not like you've been around much."

"Oh, yeah," I blinked, realizing she had a point. "I guess as a member of the Going Home Club I have been a bit harder to reach these days." Clubs are a pretty big thing in a school like ours, hell, in Japan as a whole. Probably about eighty or ninety percent of students have some kind of school sponsored activity that they attend when the last period was over. When I was a member of the council I had usually stated for three or four hours after the final period, generally being kept busy catering to the whims of the suggestion box or other duties of a General Affairs Manager. Without any of that to hold me back I had started joining the ten to twenty percent of students who just went home right away.

"You shouldn't go off on your own so quickly," Kikaijima scolded me, narrowing her eyes and lifting a finger to shake at me. "People are going to start thinking you're a shut in or something."

"It's not like there's anything to do here now," I countered, though afterwards I gave a small sigh. "Although I suppose I could join a new club or something."

"Are you sure that's really necessary?" Kikaijima began, speaking a little fast as she back tracked off that conversation pretty quick. "I mean, if there's something you'd rather do than go to those other clubs, then you shouldn't just give up on it!"

"Well," I found myself looking a bit away, not really focusing on anything in particular. "There is something which has been taking up more and more of my time lately."

It hadn't taken me too long to realize what might be causing my strange reactions lately, though once I did it was almost as troubling as when I hadn't known what was causing it. I'd been working to try and get my new responses under control, with Shinobu pitching in whenever she could, but so far the whole thing had been a work in progress.

I was just thankful for the moment that at least Kikaijima wasn't causing my stomach to cramp by being near me. It would have been hard to explain to her why my belly kept growling whenever she was around.

Though I still wasn't sure if that was because I was getting myself under better control, or if she had just finished that whole embarrassing biological function which had set me off in the first place.

"Something keeping you busy?" Kikaijima parroted, her expression uncertain. "Like, something to do with the Student Council?"

"No," I declared adamantly, shaking my head. "This has nothing to do whatsoever with you guys." Seeking to change the subject, I gave her a curious glance of my own. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you be doing something with them? Why are you heading home so early?"

Kikaijima blushed, and brought her bag up in front of her face, shrinking a bit so she could hide behind it. "Well," she began, sounding embarrassed. "I told them I had something to do with the swim club and left early today."

"Sneaky," I told her, shaking my head as I did so. Before Kikaijima had joined the Student Council she had been a member of the Swim Team. Actually, she had been there ace, having gotten into Hikoniwa Academy on an athletic scholarship for that very reason. Back then the three members of the Swim Team had been a bit infamous for their mercenary natures.

All three came from bad family situations, a shared history which had left them all rather cynical. It wasn't until Medaka had confronted the three, a confrontation that had actually ended with Kikaijima and Medaka locking lips in full view of most of the school, that Kikaijima had begun to thaw to the idea that people could get along without every interaction being about money.

"Well, if you had wanted to take an early day and play hooky," I continued, "you probably could have just asked Medaka. She's usually pretty generous about that kind of thing."

"It wasn't that I wanted to just skip a day," the girl began, still keeping her student case up as a shield. "It's just, well," she swallowed, and then turned and bowed so abruptly that I actually had to hop back a step in order to avoid a violent encounter with her forehead. "Won't you please make up with Medaka!" she bellowed.

It sounded like she had been having trouble saying just what was on her mind and had decided to use volume in order to overcome any hesitancy. I gave a quick look around, and when I found that we were more or less alone and out of the prying eyes of the public, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I couldn't help but shake my head as I looked down on the still genuflecting girl. Out of all the members of the Student Council, I think she was probably the most honest. Moreover, out of the other four, after Medaka, Kikaijima had probably been the best relationship I had in the council. Both Akune and Kumagawa just had too much confrontational history with me for me to ever really be completely comfortable with either of them. Even after the two had been reformed, that bad blood had actually helped form a corner stone of our present relationships. Akune would call me a worm, and I in return would call him a snake. Kumagawa would act condescending and sneak in occasional biting remarks designed to destroy my self-esteem, and I in return would deck him in the face.

Absolute pinnacles of male bonding, I'm sure.

That aside, it was only in deference to my friendly history with Kikaijima which helped me keep my response from being too upset over her request.

"No," I told her simply, instead of the 'Hell no' which I almost let slip.

"Why not?" Kikaijima pressed on, raising her body so she could give me an earnest look. She didn't seem too discouraged by my refusal, meaning she had probably been expecting it. "You two have been together for so long! I know," she glanced to the side, flushing slightly, "that what Medaka did was pretty bad, but that doesn't mean you two should fight like this! You shouldn't let something like that ruin your friendship!"

"So what are you proposing, Kikaijima?" I asked, turning so I could resume my journey to the station. I kept my pace even, so that the Treasurer could keep up, giving her the chance to present her argument while we continued. "Just how should we make up? Should I go back and apologize? I didn't do anything wrong."

"I know that," the girl admitted, nodding her head in agreement. "And I'm not saying you should. Medaka was the one who made a mistake." She pulled ahead of me, turning around so she could face me while walking backwards. "But just because she made a mistake doesn't mean it's her fault."

I narrowed my eyes at her, but before I could respond she held both her hands out in front of her in a placating gesture, shaking her head in anticipation of my argument.

"No, I don't mean it like that either," she hurried. "I meant that I don't think Medaka even realized she was making a mistake!"

"I know that," I admitted, eyes still narrow. "Medaka isn't the type to be deliberately cruel. But that doesn't change the fact that she had been."

"But what if she doesn't know she has?" Kikaijima pressed, speaking quickly to try and get her thoughts out. "Back when I first started in the Student Council, there were a few times when Medaka would say things which were so ridiculous that I couldn't understand how someone that smart could be so stupid. Did you know she didn't even know what the Baseball Club did back then? I actually had to explain the rules to her and take her down to the field before she understood."

She was on a roll now, and I held my piece, actually a bit surprised by that bit of trivia.

"It's more than just that," Kikaijima continued, looking relieved that she had my attention. "I had to explain a bunch of different things, like soccer, and even amusement parks. It was like Medaka had spent her whole life with people so sure that she knew everything that no one ever bothered to explain so many of the simple things to her!"

"And you think that has something to do with what happened?" I asked, rolling the idea through my head. Kikaijima nodded eagerly, happy that I wasn't dismissing her explanation out of hand.

"Yes! You and I might know better than to just leave a friend behind," she continued, falling back to walk beside me so she could touch one of my arms hesitantly. "But what if Medaka really just didn't know she had done something wrong? If we were to go back, and talk to her together, then maybe we could explain what she did. I know that you're upset, Hitoyoshi-kun," she admitted earnestly, still touching my arm. "But if we can just make Medaka realize what she did wrong and apologize, then wouldn't that make things better?"

"You're wrong," I told her bluntly, and she blinked at my flat out refusal. "Explaining something like this to Medaka won't change anything."

"Why?" Kikaijima demanded, her hand moving to grab my arm, squeezing it tightly. "Why! Hitoyoshi-kun, I know you're upset, but you shouldn't let that something small like that get in the way of thirteen years of friendship!"

"Something small?" I repeated, my voice incredulous as I drew to a halt, staring at Kikaijima. "What the hell do you mean something small?" I tried to suppress it, but even I could tell my voice was starting to sound upset.

"It was just one mistake," Kikaijima pleaded, swallowing slightly as she noted my slipping demeanor. "Why should one mistake get in the way of thirteen years?"

"Why the hell shouldn't it?" I demanded in a growl, and Kikaijima's eyes locked on mine for a moment before they quickly slipped away, a shiver going through her body. "You're trying to make it sound like it was something insignificant, like it shouldn't matter in comparison, but that's wrong. Sure, there were thirteen years of good things, but where the hell is it written that one act couldn't have enough bad to match or even surpass that?"

It was the truth. Trying to think of something like this logically was inherently flawed. After all, what did logic have to do with emotions? You could spend hours trying to justify something, trying to explain it, even coming to understand it, but in the end, it didn't change the way you feel about it.

If someone cuts in front of you in a line at the store, even if they had an emergency somewhere, even if that emergency might actually important, don't you get upset over it? Or if you're playing a game with someone and they cheat, you know that they're doing it because they want to win just like you, but that still doesn't change the outrage.

Even if I tried to weight the scales in my head, it wasn't like those thirteen years were all sunshine and happiness. There were just as many bad times as there were good growing up with Medaka. She hadn't always been the easiest friend to have. There were times when she got me involved in things against my will, when she had ignored my advice or wishes in the past. In the end, I had clung to our relationship because the good generally outweighed the bad.

Until now.

"I just want the two of you to get along," Kikaijima whispered, still looking away. It actually took me a second to realize why she was refusing to meet my eyes, but when I did I closed them and began taking deep breaths in order to calm down. It looked like the red really made her uncomfortable. "Why can't you just forgive her?"

"Because sometimes someone forgiving someone else," I told her, "isn't as magnificent a thing as it's made out to be."

I had thought the same thing that time when we had finally shut down the Flask Plan. Medaka had forgiven Miyakonojou for everything he had done, for nearly killing Koga-sempai, for making me nearly kill Kikaijima, and even for when he had brainwashed Medaka herself.

Sure, forgiving him might have allowed her to befriend him, might have helped Miyakonojou reform and become a better person, but what about us, who he had hurt? Did our suffering and feelings not mean anything when compared to his?

I still think that Medaka should have just put him through a wall like she had me nearly a week ago.

"And besides," I continued, opening my eyes again. "You're wrong. You have to be."

"Have to be?" Kikaijima repeated, giving me a quick glance to affirm that I once more had blue eyes. "Why?"

"Because it's even worse if you're right," I admitted, my eyes locked on the pavement in front of me. "If she had just decided to end our friendship and move on, well, that kind of thing happens. People grow up, they change, they make new friends and lose their old ones. If what you're saying is right, then it means that despite having been together for thirteen years, despite everything we had went through together, despite that I was her friend for so long…."

I trailed off, before sighing, shaking my head.

"Despite all that then she would have never once considered me her friend at all."

"That's not true!" Kikaijima blurted, looking panicked at my conclusion, before she snapped her mouth shut, and looked away. I had been speaking hypothetically, but it looked as though I might have hit something the sensitive girl had been suspecting herself. Shifting glances back at me out of the corner of her eyes, she spent a second looking as though she was trying to think of something before she finally blurted out, "What about Shiranui?"

"What about her?" I asked, willing to let the subject be changed. Whatever it was that I had touched that had set her off, I would probably be better off not knowing about it.

"Hasn't she done worse to you then Medaka ever did?" Kikaijima pointed out, folding her arms as she did so. "That little girl's betrayed you a lot more then Medaka ever did."

"Shiranui?" I cocked my head to the side, confused by her argument. "Shiranui's never done anything like that."

"She told Medaka about you and Anshin'in," Kikaijima pointed out, "and she even recorded your conversation as well. Doesn't that count as her betraying you?"

I snorted, unable to keep a note of humor from entering my tone. "Not at all. That wasn't Shiranui betraying anyone. That was just her scheming."

"And you can just accept that she would do things like that?" Kikaijima asked, her lips pursed in distaste as she thought about my absent friend. It looked like she was still carrying a grudge from the time Shiranui had brazenly revealed that tasteless secret about her.

"That's just the way she is," I shrugged, dismissing the question. I had no doubt that Shiranui wouldn't be dabbling so closely in Student Council politics if she wasn't working an angle somewhere. The whole reason she had joined the class Minus Thirteen had been so that she could first highjack their school invasion plan and change it into an election fight between alternative Student Councils, and then finally highjack the election yet again in order to force Kumagawa to have one final face off with Medaka.

Just because I didn't see the angle Shiranui was working right here and now didn't mean there wasn't one. Though I'd be hard pressed to guess at the moment just what she was trying to accomplish by undermining all my efforts so far.

For a moment Kikaijima studied me, her expression a mix of hope and despair, before she sighed. As though the noise was some release for the pressure in her, she sagged.

"I hate this," she whispered, sounding tired and sad. "I hate seeing the two of you fight. I hate what it's doing to the Council." She gave me a desolate look as she continued. "You're my friends, both of you. With the way things are going, it feels like you're leaving, Hitoyoshi-kun."

"Hey," I began, honestly flustered by her confession. I guess I hadn't realized just how hard this was going to hit Kikaijima. With both her parents sick, she never really had anyone besides her sempais at the Swim Club. I guess ever since she joined the Council the rest of us had joined her little community of people she cared about. "It's not like I'm going anywhere yet."

"Yet," she repeated, and I realized that I had included the word without even realizing it. I glanced away, rubbing my shoulder uncomfortably as I did so. "Hitoyoshi-kun," she continued, still only looking at me from the corner of her eyes. "Can I ask you one last thing?"

"Absolutely," I nodded, hoping that if I answered her question she wouldn't look so depressed.

"Who is the other girl that Shiranui and you were talking about?"

I actually forgot to put my foot down mid-step at the question, though I recovered before I fell flat on my face. "What other girl?" I repeated, licking my suddenly dry lips at the new and unwelcome topic.

"In the tape," Kikaijima explained, sounding hesitant again. "When you were both talking about the day you met. Shiranui mentioned something about someone else you met that day, calling the person 'her'."

"I'd rather not talk about her," I admitted. I didn't talk about Shinobu. Not with anyone. What had happened between the two of us, the life we now shared, it just wasn't something that should be spoken of. It wasn't like anyone would be able to understand our circumstances. More than that, it was a story that just had too many personal moments in it to speak of casually. Even Shiranui, who never seemed affected by the violent or powerful people in her life, usually went out of her way not to speak of the vampire who lived in my shadow.

Now it was my turn to only glance at Kikaijima out of the corner of my eyes. She noticed my reaction, and turned to look at me a bit more full on.

"Is she someone I know?" Kikaijima pressed, leaning forward slightly. "Nobody else could figure out who the two of you were talking about. Even Medaka-chan and Maguro-sempai, who've known you almost forever, couldn't figure out who she was."

"Listen," I began, shifting my case so that it rested on my shoulder. "I don't like talking about it, okay. Just let it go."

"And even if no one else seems to think so, whenever I listen to the tape, I can't help but think that Shiranui sounded off," Kikaijima continued, studying my reaction. "It's almost like she's scared…."

"Leave it," I ordered her, my tone cool as I gave her a hard look. She flinched, but kept her eyes on me.

"Your eyes are red again, Hitoyoshi-kun," she whispered, and I blinked, before looking away quickly. I wasn't even angry this time; upset, maybe annoyed, but not angry. I cleared my throat, and started to pick up my pace.

"Look, there's something I have to take care of," I told her, already pulling ahead. "Why don't you head on to the station on your own?" It was an inglorious retreat, but I had to get away before she started asking too many questions that I wasn't willing to answer.

"That's okay," Kikaijima whispered, and I was suddenly certain that she hadn't meant for me to hear her. "It looks like there was something I forgot back at school."

*Scene Break*

"This is getting out of hand, Shinobu," I muttered, staring at my reflection in the dark window pane.

"Surely thou speak in jest, servant," she responded back, a doubtful tone in her voice. "Why even I am willing to contemplate the perversity of my latest hobby, surely a few more guests is naught to be concerned about?"

"That," I began, glancing over to where Shinobu was once more seated at her make shift table, "well, that wasn't what I was talking about, but now that you mention it…"

I had thought it disconcerting when she had managed to scrounge up just the skeleton and the anatomy model for her nightmare tea parties, but the latest two members she had recently added had to score at least five points higher on the weird scale. The preserved pig fetus in a jar of formaldehyde lent an eerie, mad scientist kind of vibe to her imaginary friends list, and I didn't even want to consider just how she had gotten ahold of it. On the other hand, the plastic cutaway model of a brain was almost tame on its own, but the addition of a set of broken glasses on the frontal lobe directly above a fake mustache lent it the air of a whole different flavor of peculiar.

If that hadn't been enough then pulling off the other arm of the anatomy model, setting the torso up across the room, and then using the newly dismembered arm for a bizarre variation of 'Pin The Tail on the Donkey' would have definitely caused even the most easy going of parents to seek professional help.

Especially when she insisted that the other members of her tea party take a turn as well.

"Hmph," Shinobu grunted, turning her head away with an air of offended dignity. "I have seen many an other child of my age entertaining such amusements, and there were none who called them to task."

"That's because they were probably the age they looked," I pointed out, turning back to study my reflection in the window again. "And they most likely used an actual donkey and tail set, with tape for that matter, rather than severed limbs with rusty nails driven into them instead of adhesives."

"Nonsense," Shinobu dismissed my points without hesitation. "If there are any who dare complain, I shall simply inform them of my intentions to become a surgeon in some latter day." She puffed her chest in pride at having come up with a cover story for her choice in materials.

"Ah," I grunted at her comeback, scratching the back of my head again as I did so. "Well, I'm sure that would work." It wasn't like there was anyone who was ever going to call her to task on her choice of hobbies, and even if there was then the tiny vampire certainly looked young enough to get away with that kind of misconception.

"Certainly tis a better choice of time then thy own hobbies," Shinobu added, carefully tying the blindfold made out of one of my spare handkerchiefs around her eyes before picking up the limb for her next turn. "Surely thou could better occupy thyself with some task other than gazing upon thine reflection? I had not thought thee a narcissist 'fore tonight."

"That's not why I'm doing this," I argued, pursing my lips at her teasing. "I'm just trying to see what my new threshold is before I go all pinkeye."

Admittedly, this did end up being mostly me staring at myself in a mirror and trying to make myself mad on purpose, a task which didn't always work as well as I hoped, but at least I had determined that whatever the new limit on my change it wouldn't just happen on its own. It usually took until I started getting irritated at not being able to force myself to be angry before the frustration would trigger a change.

Shinobu huffed again, but turned to let me to my own amusements as she focused instead on her game.

All said and done, it was promising to be just like any other night, when something fairly rare happened.

Shinobu noticed it first, or she reacted to it first, but a split second after her head jerked up, still blindfolded, and turned to the door frame I found myself reacting to the same thing.

"Is that…" I paused trying to identify what had happened. "Was that someone shouting?"

"Indeed," Shinobu nodded, pulling off her blindfold as she did so. "It seems thou has patrons."

"Huh," I grunted. "Customers. How rare." Even if it wasn't a common thing, I did spend nearly a year working under Oshino when he was still hanging around here. Most of my work had been running around town doing his errands, but on occasion I had been the one to recommend work to him. Once a person has been affected by the Kai, the oddities, then that person would forever be more likely to attract them. And considering my encounter with the Kai had ended with me becoming a vampire, I was probably doubly affected by that rule.

It hadn't been much of an official apprenticeship, but I had got some diverse experience during the time I had been working for him. Afterwards I'd occasionally get word of some other person suffering from exposure to the Kai, and I'd occasionally lent my services out as an exorcist. I wasn't a specialist by any stretch, especially compared to Oshino's incredible skills, but with my pseudo-immortal body and Shinobu's advice I had managed to help a good number of people.

Still, it wasn't like I went about advertising so the only customers I got were usually from word of mouth, or people I ran into directly.

"Well," I began, glancing over at Shinobu. "It'll probably take them a while to get up here. You want to go ahead and eat?"

"Mmm," Shinobu nodded once, abandoning her tea party to approach me. Obediently, I kneeled down, unbuttoning my school jacket as I did so. Without waiting, the little vampire found a vein and began helping herself. One of these days I was going to convince her to give me an 'Itadakimasu' before hand, if not for the courtesy of it then as a warning of just when she was going to put her fangs in.

It was a precautionary measure I had adopted ever since I got jumped by a Rainy Day demon. It had been a complicated case involving mixed crushes, lesbian jealousy, and a cursed wish-granting demonic limb, but the most noticeable part of that case had been how the possessed girl who had ended up being my customer had jumped me from behind and beat me until I was seven eighths dead. If it hadn't been for my latent diminished vampire recovery abilities, then I quite literally would have died that first night.

It was a job risk of working with the Kai. The Kai were not human, and it was a fact that most of them either didn't like humanity that much, or just plain hunted them for food. Consequentially, whenever I had the chance I made sure I went into a situation like that with the ability to regenerate severed limbs.

When Shinobu had drained me to the point where I was around fifty percent my latent power, I gently tapped her shoulder and she reluctantly pulled away, smacking her lips like a kid savoring a sweet snack. Fifty percent was around the golden rule for me when it came to using my vampire nature: just enough for me to use most of the latent abilities of the species, and not enough for me to start being affected by their weakness. It was the same ratio of most dampyrs, the children of a pairing that had one human and one vampire parents.

"That should be enough," I reminded Shinobu as I began to tug off the rest of my school uniform. Hakoniwa Academy was rather prestigious, and it didn't like getting bad publicity. It was pretty common for them to take disciplinary actions against students who got caught getting up to no good while in uniform. The last thing I wanted was for whoever was coming to snap a cell phone picture of me and post it online while blabbing about monsters.

Especially considering the fact that Hakoniwa would probably read 'Monsters' as 'Abnormals' and then try to get involved. I had enough trouble with the faculty with them considering me just a normal.

"Indeed," Shinobu nodded her acknowledgment, before stepping back and placing herself firmly in my shadow cast by the moonlight coming through the hole in the roof. "If thou needest me, thou need only call for me." As though she were standing on some kind of elevator, she began to sink, until she once more came to rest in my shadow, completely concealed.

I cocked my head to the side, trying to follow the progress of the person who had entered the abandoned school, as I got dressed. It was nothing fancy, just a set of faded pale blue jeans and a white hoody. I didn't bother with shoes or socks, and made sure to pull the hood all the way up so that it hung low, concealing my hair and most of my eyes. It would stand out in the dark, but it would conceal most of my identity from casual observance.

Even as I settled back, shifting a few of the desks to make a suitable sitting area, I narrowed my eyes. I couldn't be certain, seeing as I was still getting used to this whole 'being able to hear things at distances and through objects that should be blocking the sound', but it sounded like they were moving far too quickly. Considering the state of disrepair of the cram school, there's no way they should be able to make such fast progress. With all the wrecked walls, blocked hallways, open walls through classrooms, and impassable stairways, the school was quite literally a maze. A person could spend hours trying to make their way to the fourth floor if they didn't know the way.

Which probably meant that whoever was coming was most likely not a customer at all. It happened from time to time. The school was a wreck, after all, and with the state of disrepair it made for prime real estate for various other groups: gangs looking for a place to call their base, homeless trying to find shelter from the rain, and occasionally a place for tests of courage for adventurous students.

That was the occasion when my outfit pulled double duty: a white form, moving with a vampire's grace and surety in the dark, and that would appear and disappear into dark nooks and crannies at seeming will. It generally didn't take much for me to scare off those who were just here for kicks or to prove their courage. I generally left the homeless alone for a night or two, before making sure that they too would move on. When it came to gangs, I tended to be a bit more vicious just to make an impression, but they usually split just as quickly as the rest when faced with something which seemed to defy their comprehension.

Well, if it was just some kids who had scoped the place during the day for a dare, then they would be taken care of soon enough. It seemed like maybe half the people who sought me out did so on a dare, or just to see if the rumors about an exorcist that appeared at night on the fourth room of the fourth story were true. About half of people who showed up were like that. The other half, who were actually trying to hire me, well, nine times out of ten they were just superstitious people who would believe anything. People like that rarely made it all the way to my room. If they were so certain that the tree limb tapping on their window was really a ghost, then there was no way they'd make it all the way up here without having a heart attack.

And for those who actually did have problems, well, making it this far was usually proof that their problems were serious enough to warrant my attention.

Judging from the sounds of muffled voices and feet brushing against rubble, it sounded like maybe a half a dozen people total. On the off chance that this really was a job, I decided to play the host rather than start with the ghost games. I sat back on my little impromptu palace of desks, and lowered my head to wait for when they arrived.

A figure in white perched amidst the rubble of an abandoned wreck; this was also part of my exorcising strategy. A surprising amount of exorcism came from the affected person themselves. When Oshino had had to summon a god who had gotten a little too free with an inconvenient blessing, the summoning had required him to put the unfortunately blessed into the same state of mind as when they originally made contact with the god. Oshino had pulled that off with a form of passive hypnotism, fixing up one of the rooms as an impromptu shrine and dressing himself up as a priest. That combined with careful questioning had let him call the god, some kind of crab of all things.

Even if Oshino had been a scruffy guy with an unhealthy love of Hawaiian t-shirts, he still looked like a person who might know what they were talking about. If anything, his age and his unorthodox approach to dealing with his customers had given him an air of eccentric genius, and thus people were willing to go along with him when he started advising them.

Sadly, I couldn't quite pull the same act off. I was only fifteen, something which made even the most desperate of customers skeptical, and with my blond hair and blue eyes I looked more like a yankee then a genuine exorcist. Since I couldn't pull off the same casual competence that Oshino used, I had to get creative. Sure, I might not look like a priestly fellow, but in conditions like this I definitely could pull of an intimidating figure. Since I couldn't convince people to trust my abilities, a must for dealing with some of the trickier Kai, based on an appearance of competence I instead went the other route.

I scared them into believing in my abilities instead.

If they thought I was some frightening apparition, some sort of user of black magic or similar, then they would take my advice seriously if only out of fear of me cursing them or something like that. It didn't do much for customer relations, but at least it managed to get them to believe in me enough for me to help them.

Still, this had all the markings of just a group of school kids looking for a cheaper thrill then the price of tickets to a horror movie. With my eyes closed I waited until I could hear the footsteps directly outside the entrance to the room I had claimed as my own before I spoke.

"Welcome," I said, trying to pitch my tone in something which didn't cross the line between ominous and hokey. "What can I do for you tonight, in my- MEDAKA?"

What had started as something I had ripped right out of a b-grade horror manga turned into a yelp as I identified just who it was standing framed in the doorframe. Behind her, I saw Kikaijima yelp, and latch onto Kumagawa at the sudden noise. Just past those two was Akune, who looked tense as he squinted past the others into my room.

Medaka on the other hand just glanced around casually, a small frown on her face as she took in the room with her hands on her hips. "So this is what you do at night, Zenkichi? I'm normally one for encouraging people's hobbies, but doesn't this seem a little extreme?"

"That is Hitoyoshi-kun, isn't it?" Kikaijima whispered to Kumagawa, the grinning boy not looking the least bit perturbed as the attractive girl remained attached to him like a leech. "It isn't a ghost, is it?"

"No, I'm not a ghost," I answered her, and she flinched as I spoke. It actually took me a second to remember that I had just been in my 'ominous exorcist' persona, and quickly I reached up to brush my hood back. It took another flinch from Kikaijima and Akune tensing up even more for me to realize that even with the hood down they wouldn't be able to see me properly in the dark corner I had been waiting in, so I hopped down from the desks and made my way to the puddle of moonlight in the center of the room. Finally able to make me out clearly seemed to be enough for Kikaijima to release a sigh of relief and loosening her hold on the club Vice-President.

"[Hello, Zen-chan]," Kumagawa waved, not looking the least bit disturbed by the scene in front of him. "[We've come to play]!"

"Come to play?" I repeated, still feeling completely off balance by the sudden intrusion. I shook my head, trying to get my composure back. When in doubt, act like a host I suppose. "Here, come on in." I made a motion for them to enter, and when they hesitated, Akune cautiously feeling in front of him with one foot before he actually took a step, I smacked my forehead. "Right," I told them. "Give me a second. I have some candles around here somewhere."

Picking my way easily across the room, I pulled open the door to a battered janitor's locker I had pulled in here. It creaked eerily when I opened it, but since it was mostly water tight it was the place I used to store some of my exorcist tools. Mostly rope, but some paper strips meant for charms as well as a small bottle of sake and a few other esoteric supplies. I pulled a mostly depleted package of candles from near the bottom, as well as a cheap plastic lighter, and turned back to the room.

Even as the three in the doorway were only just beginning to make their way into the room proper, Medaka had started to make herself right at home. Ignoring the pool of light that the other three were going for she was already beginning to pace around the perimeter of the room, taking in the details despite the darkness. In fact, she moved almost as well as I did even without my perfect night vision.

"This is quite the place you assembled," she noted, eying the broken furniture and rubble curiously.

"Inherited, actually," I corrected her, breaking out the only candle left and clearing some space in on one of the desks. With a quick snap, the lighter was touched to the wick and a small but warm light began to dance.

"Thank god," Kikaijima whimpered, moving closer to the candle before pausing, now able to make out some of the actual details of my lair. "If you had a candle already then why weren't you using it?"

"Are you kidding?" I asked, blinking at the question. "In this place? If I used candles too often I'd probably end up burning the whole thing down by accident."

"Not that that would be a bad thing," Akune added, glancing around the rubbish strewn classroom. "I'm surprised this place isn't condemned."

"Actually, I think it is," I admitted, rubbing my head sheepishly. It actually felt a little embarrassing, like having invited someone into a messy room without realizing you had left your porn or underwear lying about. "But I think there were some kind of zoning law that are keeping them from going through with it."

"Um, Hitoyoshi-kun?" Kikaijima spoke back up, her voice wavering again. "Just what are those doing here?"

Following where her finger was pointing, I suppressed a wince. I hadn't even thought about adjusting the room, and the macabre tea party was still assembled in the center of it. Normally, it would actually add to the atmosphere, but once more I felt myself embarrassed and I had to suppress an urge to try and sweep the models into a corner and then cover them with a sheet or something.

"That," I began, trying to find an excuse and coming up short, "is a very good question, to which there is a perfectly logical answer which would completely explain everything." I suppressed a sigh when that was all I could come up with.

"You mean besides you working on your anatomy homework?" Akune asked, having grown sure enough in his surroundings to start moving more about the room.

"Yes," I nodded, instantly jumping on his answer. "That's a much better excuse." I blinked, and then shook my head briefly. Focus, Zenkichi, focus. "Wait, what am I saying? What the hell are you all doing here?"

"School Council business," Medaka informed me from where she was standing next to the previously titled 'Mr. Scrumperfield' examining the test tube which had been serving as the headless skeleton's tea cup.

"'Student Council business'?" I repeated, feeling my eye twitch. "This isn't anywhere near the school, nor does it have anything to do with any of you. So what, pray tell, is this 'Student Council business'?"

"It's very rare, but for the second time ever, Shiranui-san has appealed to the suggestion box in order to intervene on the behalf of one of her fellow students," Medaka told me, beaming proudly as she answered.

"Shiranui?" I repeated, not knowing how to respond to that. "As in Hansode Shiranui? Short girl, likes to eat a lot?" Medaka nodded firmly, confirming my description. "And she asked you, of all people, to intervene on my behalf?"

"Yes," Medaka nodded again.

I slapped a palm of my hand to my face, groaning as I did so. "Worst. Best. Friend. Ever." Shaking my head, I glared at Medaka. "And just what did that request of hers say?"

"I have it here," Medaka began, pulling a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. Not waiting for her to go any further, my hand darted out, snatching the note away from her. Medaka actually seemed taken aback by the speed of my grab, and blinked, looking nonplussed at my sudden movement. Taking the note I backed away from the table, trying to get out of the flickering light of the candle so I could read it more clearly.

"'Dear Ms. President'," I began, reading it out loud. "'I'm writing in concern for a fellow student, a Zenkichi Hitoyoshi. Lately he has been spending a lot of time with a strange woman alone in a dark and spooky building, (see map below for exact location), and I've been worried that he might be up to something indecent! Could you please drop by (between the hours of eleven and twelve pm, if at all possible) and see if he needs any help? Love and kisses, Hansode Shiranui'. Smiley face, smiley face." Once more, Shiranui had accompanied the note with her customary cartoonish drawing of herself, this time the miniature figure looking like it was shaking its head in concern.

"With such an earnest request, we, the Student Council, had no choice but to respond to your unspoken cry for help!" Medaka confirmed, nodding sternly.

"It's not just that, Hitoyoshi-kun," Kikaijima broke in quickly, her voice concerned. "We've all been worried about you. Medaka-chan called your mother, and she was surprised that you weren't with the Student Council anymore. She thought that was the reason you kept getting home so late. More than that, when we asked Shiranui about the other girl, she got so nervous! We were worried that you might have gotten involved with someone bad, Hitoyoshi-kun."

"There's something else that's been bothering us," Akune broke in. "There's the matter with Anshin'in as well. As strong as you might be, and even I will acknowledge that for a worm you're very impressive, there's just no way you could have handled Not Equal on your own. But, if you were to be involved with someone else, someone who had capabilities equal to or similar to Anshin'in-san, then you might be able to match even a monster like that."

"[So naturally, if Zen-chan got himself involved with something bad, then it would only be natural to try and help him out, wouldn't it]?" Kumagawa shrugged, apparently dismissing his own words of concern. "[At least, that's what everyone else is saying. All I know is that this isn't my fault]!"

"And so, we have arrived here to find this depressing scene," Medaka concluded. She began leaning backwards as she spoke, one hand coming up, fan open and covering her mouth while the other pointed at me. "It's clear to me now that your previous rebellion has no doubt come about from your recently discovered love of impressionist art!" she gestured at the tea party scene, still leaning backwards as she did so. "However, while seeking to express yourself you shouldn't sacrifice your safety by working in such a dangerous and unkempt studio. This is doubtlessly the results of having fallen into poor company! Thus, I, Medaka Kurokami, shall see to it that you are pulled free from whatever negative influence it is that is compelling you to seek out such a hovel and set you upon the path of true artistic inspiration!"

She finished her speech, leaning so far backwards that she was actually looking at the ceiling. It was the notorious Boa Hancock 'Looking so far down on someone that you're actually looking upwards' pose. It was added to the list of similarly stolen media inspiration that I had seen her use in the past, joining the ranks of the Ginyu Force and Pretty Cure White.

It would have been amusing, if it wasn't for the fact that for the first time in my life I was seriously considering hurting Medaka.

With my eyes tightly closed, and my teeth gritting so hard the noise was audible, I barely managed to get out the growled phrase, "Get the hell out of my building."

I had put up with a lot from Medaka over the years. It had been a labor of love standing beside her for over a decade, one which I had bemoaned at times but one I had suffered through none the less. Even after she had turned away from me for not living up to her expectations only to welcome me right back with open arms as her enemy, I had still dealt with it. It wasn't hard to write off the things she did. I was the one who knew Medaka best, who understood why she did what she did. Sure, I didn't always agree with her, and yes, sometimes her actions hurt me, but I had never really been able to truly hate her for it. It would be like hating the wind for blowing, or sun for shining. It was just what Medaka was.

That was before she so brazenly trampled into my school, the place where I had died and been reborn, the place where I had spent years of my life learning and fighting against the Kai, the place where Shinobu had stayed during the first harsh months of her new existence, and the place which had always been distinctly ours.

And now, it was being violated with careless abandon by those who had no place being here. This wasn't a place for those who have never stood face to face with beautiful monsters in the dark. This wasn't a place for those who tried to help others, who dedicated themselves to humanity, or followed that dedication blindly.

This was where blood washed away blood, and blood would always tell.

"You have no right to be here," I continued, and I realized that my fists had clenched so tightly that my finger nails had tug into my palm, warm blood flowing down and dripping onto the floor. I was so angry I was actually shaking. "None of you have any place here. Get out. Now."

It was a childish, unreasonable anger. It was a baseless territoriality. I had more right to be angry when Medaka had turned her back on me, or when she had chosen to make me her enemy. And I had been angry, but not as angry as I was right now.

It might be childish and unreasonable, but that didn't change the fact that if she didn't leave right now, if they didn't leave right now, then I would hurt them, reason be damned.

"Oi, Hitoyoshi," Akune spoke up, sounding honestly disturbed as he had realized just how badly I was taking their presence. Kumagawa spoke up as well, though he instead sounded depressed.

"[I bet his eyes are red again. Why couldn't I ever get his eyes red? Was it something I didn't do]?"

"Hmm," I heard Medaka's voice in the same position where I had last seen her. "While it is good to see your passionate side being displayed for your art, it's no good to try and exclude others from viewing it! We can ask classmate Yuubaru to help you find some proper facilities. If you're uncertain of your abilities to capture the image, then we can have him help you with the painting techniques as well. Never fear, Zenkichi! You're passionate artistic soul will soon be free!"

I went still. Even now Medaka was still being Medaka. Even now, that stupid, brilliant, beautiful girl, so used to standing above others, so used to being above others, of understanding everything better than everyone else around her, was still looking through the eyes of one who just couldn't understand those she gazed upon.

And most importantly of all, she was still threatening the sanctity of my refuge. Now that she knew of it I had no doubt she'd probably end up trying to change it in some way, to bring more people who had no place here. I was never going to be able to sway her with words now. There was only one way to get her out of my school.

"You know," I said, my voice soft, "I don't know why I thought I could avoid this. Really, I guess I am just an idiot when it comes down to it."

With my left hand I reached out and smothered the sole candle giving light to the room. When I opened my eyes, I had no doubt that they were once more red. In the dark, I was certain that they glimmered like embers.

With my right hand, in the moment when human sight had to adjust from the light to the dark, a moment that I didn't have to endure, I decked Medaka in the face.

I don't know if it was because she was still adjusting to the change in light, or if in my present half vampire state I was just too quick, or if she honestly just didn't expect it, but it was a clean hit, snapping her head to the side with an audible crack. I had a moment to see her eyes widen, though if it was shock from the pain or surprise from the suddenness I couldn't tell. Either way, the sight was strangely gratifying to me.

There were shouts from the rest of the Student Council, Akune's voice rising in disbelief and Kikaijima's in shock, but by then I was already moving. Medaka was righting herself already, her super human physical abilities making themselves known as she came up in a fighting position, her eyes already narrowing in glee at the thought of having her chance to truly fight against me.

As if I would be that stupid.

Instead, she had only a second to realize that I wasn't in front of her before my next attack hit her. It wasn't my fists, or even my feet. Instead I had darted past her, heading towards one of the dark corners of the classroom. It only took me a second to make it there, but in that second it put a lot of rubble and broken desks between me and Medaka.

So I threw one of them at her instead.

She managed to catch sight of it before it impacted, and she brought one hand up to block it. The movement protected her, but in doing so it blocked her vision. That was all I needed for me to make it to the classroom wall. A classroom wall that had been exposed to the elements and time long enough for rot to properly set.

Rather than stop there, I just pressed on, breaking through the feeble barrier as if it wasn't even there. Ignoring the broken cement and shattered plaster, I darted through the doorway of that classroom and into the hallway. From there, it was only a matter of looking up and I found an opening in the ceiling, a gaping hole that smelled of must and mildew. It was perhaps eight feet up, a jump I could have made even when I was completely human rather than in my dampyr state.

I'd already faced Medaka once in a straight up fight. I knew just how stupid that was. But here, well, this was more my home then the place I went to sleep in. This was where I had spent every evening for the last two and a half, almost three years. I knew this place as though it was a part of me. Judging from how quickly Medaka had managed to find me in the first place she must have used that echolocation trick of hers, the one where she had Kikaijima shout and then she judged the echoes. That might work for the general location, but where she only had generals I had specifics.

"Zenkichi!" I heard my opponent shout, and I didn't have to know her as well as I did to hear the glee in her tone. "Where are you? You can't be thinking about running away? Not again! Not like this!" I didn't answer her, concentrating on crawling, limbs splayed like a spider as bare hands and bare feet sought silent purchase. "Zenkichi!" Her tone had passed even glee at this point, and was bordering on something which sounded like ecstasy. "Answer me! What are you going to do next?"

Well, with a line like that, how could I resist? I didn't need words for my response this time. Instead, I just brought the house down on her. Grasping rotting and rusted support beams, bracing myself against the underside of the roof, I forced the failing steel to give way. I broke through the plaster ceiling of the fourth floor, catching site of Medaka as she spun to face me, the rest of the Student Council already scrambling to get out of the way. My childhood friend grinned, her teeth bare as she saw me coming down on her with probably a metric ton of rubble right behind me.

I swung at her, a blow she met head on with one of her own, and the force of the impact was enough to send spider web cracks through the floor beneath her while simultaneously blowing me backwards. Though the floor gave her purchase, I had to flail as I was launched back upwards until I found a piece of falling debris large enough to support me. Pressing forward, I sent myself back down at the still recovering Medaka.

This time, when I met her it was with the rest of the rubble behind me. I think she had time to block my punch before I was forced down onto her as the rest of the ceiling caught up with my fall. The floor which had shattered beneath Medaka cracked more, and then gave way.

Together we fell, and even midair I continued to do my best to strike at her. I think she might have been lucky that as we fell I was between her and the worst of the rubble. I didn't bother to keep track of how many sharp pieces of cement cut into me, how many scraps of falling steel buried themselves in my back. Even if the entire trip down to the third floor only lasted for twenty seconds at best, that was eighteen seconds more than I needed to heal from any of the wounds.

When we struck the floor beneath us in a rain of shrapnel and debris, I wondered for a moment whether we would end up going down to the second floor as well. Still, it looked like this level was a bit more sturdy then the one above. More than that, it left me in an advantageous position, squatting directly above Medaka with her body pinned by mine. I tried to mount her, pinning her to the floor, but with the hazardous rain of debris I ended up wasting vital time shrugging off the worst of it. It was enough for Medaka, with all the accumulated martial arts experience she had acquired over the years, to use some kind of move I couldn't quite identify to send me flying, and once more I had the pleasure of going through a wall, though this time not of my own volition.

I didn't bother to try and land on my feet, instead rolling and scrabbling along the ground with all four limbs. When it looked like my unplanned on flight would take me through a second wall, I simply pushed harder, and took advantage of the spreading space between myself and Medaka.

When I finally got enough control of my movements for me to direct myself, I darted towards the hallway. I could either try for another ceiling move, but Medaka would probably be expecting that. There was a hole in the floor on this level which would let me try and make an attack from below, but that would be too cliché at this point. My best option now would be just to circle back around to the room we originally fell into and try and hit her from behind as she attempted to follow me.

I made it through the doorway, but my plans were made null when a fist returned an earlier favor and I found myself flying down the hallway again. It looked like Medaka had decided to go into the hallway herself first, either in anticipation of my next move or just as an attempt to flank me herself. I managed to recover, but only after I had traveled about two thirds of the length of the corridor. On all fours, I froze, watching my approaching foe.

"Ha! Haha! Hahahaha!" Medaka was actually laughing out loud, a nearly maniacal sound after she sent me on another trip. Her school uniform was ripped and torn in places, and I could make a few traces of blood on her from where she had caught her own falling debris, but she looked undaunted by the damage. "Yes! I knew this would be the best! Isn't this fun, Zenkichi? I knew that you would make the greatest of enemies!"

This would be the point where I should say something like, 'I'm glad you're enjoying yourself!' or 'The fun has only just begun!' Only I wasn't glad she was enjoying herself, and she was the only one here having fun. Medaka might be in this only for the kicks, but me, I was deathly serious.

"You know," I said, speaking softly. "The reason I'm fighting is to get you all out of my building, right?"

"If that's the reason that you finally raised arms against me, than I'm glad," Medaka admitted, starting to walk towards me, her stride purposeful and her fists clenched. She paused when I smiled, shaking my head slightly.

"You never could understand other people's hearts," I told her, a cold flash of teeth the best approximation of a returning grin I could manage. "I want all of you out."

She looked confused for a second, then her eyes widened. By then it was too late. I leaped, launching myself upwards and through the thin plaster of the ceiling tiles. It was dark in the space between them and the bottom of the fourth floor, and the space was narrow, but using the same spider like grace I had been managing I found just what I was looking for: a hole leading back to the fourth floor.

I was back on the fourth floor in a matter of seconds, but that was only thanks to my familiarity with the building in general. For Medaka, she was going to have to make some hard choices. I raced forwards, going back on to two limbs as I pumped my arms to get the needed speed as I headed back towards where my old classroom was. Time existed in a series of still frames.

A frame of me rounding the corner of the hallway. A frame of the rest of the Student Council coming into focus. A frame of them realizing I was coming towards them. A frame of their faces reacting in shock.

And then a frame of Medaka appearing from the hole I had put her in.

That was what I was waiting for.

Once more, I managed to dig my fist into her cheeks, darting past the still reacting onlookers and landing my second full on blow into my enemy.

It was my turn to send her flying as the full force of my body weight sank into the hit. Unfortunately, Medaka ended up being better at recovering then me. She only managed to make it a quarter of the way down the corridor before she was up on her feet and racing back, demonic grin spread across her lips.

"Wait!" I heard Kikaijima shout, but by then it was too late for words. Medaka and I were closing, fists up and blood burning. I was going to wipe that smile off her face if it was the last thing I did. It was a smile that was enjoying this debacle, which was savoring the pain it put me through!

This was not Medaka. Not the one I had stood beside for so long. Not the one that I loved. When had she changed? When had she gone from the girl who would take a blow and then excuse it with the phrase 'You had no reason to hit me so I had no reason to dodge'? When had she gone from wanting to make the people around her happy to just wanting to fight them?

"I said, 'WAIT'," Kikaijima repeated, and this time it wasn't just a word. It was the full force of the awesome lung capacity of the Swim Team's ace. It hit the two of us, and I meant that literally, with enough force to send both of back down the hallway Medaka had just charged down.

Medaka managed to recover her footing properly but I didn't even bother, instead choosing to stay on all fours for better mobility. Nonetheless, the both of us paused, the pace of our fight having been thrown off by the unexpected attack.

"Kikaijima," Akune snapped, looking pale as his eyes darted between Medaka and I, and the now trembling Kikaijima. "What are you doing? We shouldn't get in the way now!"

"No!" Kikaijima screamed, stamping one foot angrily as she did so. The Treasurer looked pale, and was shaking where she stood, but two spots of red had formed high on her cheeks. "I'm not going to stand by! I'm going to get in the way! I'm not going to let this happen!" With wild eyes she glared at her upper classman, Akune flinching away at the angry stare. "Naze-sempai was right! There's nothing good about standing by and watching two people fight while saying things like, 'Wow, I don't think I can beat him now!'."

With an angry glare, Kikaijima then proceeded to tear at her blouse, ripping it down the center and revealing the swim suit she was wearing underneath it. She didn't go any further, but the symbolism of the act wasn't lost on me. Kikaijima always wore her swimsuit. For her, it was something she never went without. It was a symbol of her membership to the Swim Club, the first place she made friends, and a reminder of her strength. She had called it her battle armor in the past.

For her to bare it like that meant that she wasn't playing around.

"I'm not going to let this go any further," she swore, her eyes deadly serious. "If I have to get involved, then I don't care what happens. The two of you are going to stop fighting, and you're going to talk this out." Her eye twitched, and she let loose a distinctly unfeminine growl. "And if I have to beat both of you into the ground to make it happen, then that's just what I'm going to do!"

"[Hmmm]," Kumagawa hummed as he played with one of his strange screws. I wasn't sure if the otherwise innocuous piece of house ware was being somehow created by his minus, or if he simply bought them bulk somewhere and used his powers to imbue them, but being hit by those things were no joke. Kumagawa's minus was called 'Book Maker', and its ability was to limit anyone who got hit with it to the same capabilities as Kumagawa himself. Physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, whoever was stuck could go no further than he could.

It was an ability which had even managed to contain Anshin'in for a period of nearly three years.

"[Well]!" he continued, still smiling his lotus eater grin. "[It looks like Kikaijima-chan has decided to make a move]! [As a friend of the weak, it seems that I'm going to have to support her]!"

I glanced at the two new combatants, then at Medaka, wondering how she was taking this interruption of our fight; mostly to see if I could take advantage of it to sneak a new attack in. Unfortunately, while she was frowning unhappily she hadn't let her guard down yet.

"Now," Kikaijima, growled, looking far more in control of the situation then the two of us did. "Are going to settle this like reasonable adults, or do I-"

"Wait!" a new voice interrupted the girl who had already been doing the interrupting. Every eye in the hallway flickered to the nearest functioning stair well in surprise as the latest interruption made herself known. "Wait!" Shiranui repeated, sounding desperate as she raced down the hallway, tripping over various debris in her haste.

"Shiranui?" I asked, honestly surprised by her presence here. It wasn't like Shiranui was the combative type so I doubted she had any intention of getting involved in the fighting. Not paying any attention to the rest, the tiny girl kept running until she pulled to a stop only a few feet away from me, before leaning forward and putting her hands on her knees.

"Phew," she gasped, panting as she tried to get her breath back. "I was worried that I'd get her too late and that you two would both be done." Turning a bit, she glared at Medaka. "I thought my note said the best time would be between eleven and twelve? Why are you here so early?"

"There was no point in waiting when one already knows the destination," Medaka answered the other girl's demands, pulling out her fan as she did so. Though she brought it up to her face like always, before it made the trip I was able to see the unhappy frown spreading on her lips. In fact, I'd say that Medaka's voice sounded genuinely frustrated at the constant interruptions to our fight.

"But you got here before I had a chance to set everything up," Shiranui complained, stomping one of her feet childishly. It was my turn to respond to the unexpected direction the conversation was going in.

"Set everything up?" I repeated, my eyes narrowing. "Shiranui, just what the hell are you planning?"

"Ah! Hitoyoshi-kun," she chirped, giving me a winning smile. "Just stand still for a second okay? And close your eyes!"

I gave her an incredulous stare at her sudden demands, before sighing the sigh of the damned and obeying. There was no point in resisting the force of nature which had somehow manifested itself into the body of an elementary school student look alike, especially when she got like this. The sooner I let her get whatever it was in her system out, the sooner I could get back to handling the eviction notice on a few unwanted intruders.

In fact, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath would probably be for the best at the moment. Earlier, my actions had been driven by pure rage, and though I had gotten a few clean hits in, Medaka had been matching me nearly blow for blow.

I was beginning to have a new respect for Anshin'in's declaration of Medaka being a Main Character whom would always win. Even here, in my most familiar place, she had managed to lure me into a fight. Sure, I was fighting dirty, but it was still a one on one, face to face battle that I was getting into. Without even realizing it I had been dragged into Medaka's pace.

I suppressed a shiver as I realized that if the fight had kept up as it had, then Medaka would have probably won. By this time tomorrow the two of us would probably have been reconciled, with me once more sporting the General Affairs Manager armband, just one more of a long line of former enemies that supported the Student Council President, my brain turning to pleasant mush as I once more settled in to a complacent life under Medaka's shadow.

To hell with that.

"There!" Shiranui's satisfied voice brought me out of my thoughts. "You can open your eyes now, Zen-chan!"

With a firm resignation in my heart for whatever it was that was waiting for me, I opened my eyes, glancing down to see what it was that Shiranui had been doing. It only took me a second to figure it out, and then I had to stop, and take several more deep breaths before I could respond.

"Shiranui," I began, my voice sounding completely reasonable and calm. "Did you just cover me in glitter?"

"Yup!" the impish girl beamed, her grin laced with malicious glee. "What do you think? I think it comes off as romantic!" Shiranui tossed the small plastic bag containing more of the shiny substance from one hand to the other.

"Romantic," I repeated, my eye twitching. "Because I'm now 'Sparkly', right?"

"Uh-huh!" She didn't even have the grace to look repentant at the affront to my dignity.

"Is that stuff non-toxic?" I asked her, my voice still level. She blinked in surprise, before glancing down at it and frowning.

"I think so? Why?" she seemed confused by my train of thought. I nodded gravely at the answer I was looking for.

"Because I'm going to make you eat it now," I told her seriously. Shiranui's eyes widened, and she spun away, giggling madly as she did so.

"Help! Miss President! I'm being attacked by a dirty molester! You have to save me!" she screamed, running head first into Medaka's legs and nearly bowling the taller girl over.

"Nothing can save you now!" I told her, gritting my teeth as I advanced on her menacingly. "I fight in the name of justice!"

"Wait," Medaka began, trying to regain her balance, as she dealt with the giggling Shiranui as the smaller girl impeded her balance. "While her prank was a little off center, there's no reason to resort to violence, Zenkichi."

"I don't want to hear that from you, Medaka-chan," I told her, trying to get my hands on the little imp as she continued to squirm about.

"[Well]," I heard Kumagawa sigh, sounding amused. "[I told you this would work, Kikaijima-chan]."

"Yes," Kikaijima seemed so happy she was near tears as the situation lost its dangerous atmosphere. "Thank you, Misogi-chan!"

It was into this newly developing air of relaxation that Akune spoke up. "Everyone," he began, his voice even tenser now then it was when Medaka and I had been fighting. "We need to run. Now."

"Akune-sempai?" Kikaijima began, and I paused in my attempt at administrating my vengeance against my best friend to glance over at the former Prince of Judo. Akune was shaking slightly and looked pale, even for his normally pretty boy complexion. He was staring at me as though it was the first time he had ever laid eyes on me and I was some kind of hideous creature.

"We had worried that he might have gotten involved with something bad when he was suddenly able to take care of Anshin'in," Akune began, actually backing away slowly. "There was just no way that even someone as strong as Zenkichi-kun taking on a monster like that without some kind of help. But it looks like we underestimated just how bad the situation was."

"What are you talking about, Secretary Akune?" Medaka chimed in, looking concerned at the change in Akune's behavior. The tension he was displaying was starting to put the rest of the room on edge.

"The only way he could have taken on someone like Not Equal was if he had a power that might equal them," Akune answered. "And what better way to fight something inhuman like that but by being inhuman?"

"Oh?" I said, my voice bland. "Whatever do you mean?" There was no way this was happening. Not now. Not like this.

"How long have you been a vampire, Zenkichi?" Akune asked me, his voice wavering as for the first time since Shiranui figured it out someone identified just what I was.

"A vampire?" Kikaijima repeated, sounding confused. She began to titter, giggling into her hand. "Akune-sempai, I know you don't like Hitoyoshi-kun, but now you're just imagining things! There's no such things as vampires, right?"

As though looking for confirmation, Kikaijima turned to me, expecting me to back up her claim. She blinked, and then took a step back of her own, not having expected the expression on my face.

"My eyes turn red and glow in the dark," I began, straightening, and closing my eyes as I tried to keep my voice from rising. "I can see perfectly even when there's no light. My canines," I paused, running my tongue along said teeth and finding them to be dagger sharp, splitting my tongue at the lightest of touch, "have extended by nearly an inch and a half since the beginning of this fight. I've just been put through two floors and three walls, and while even Medaka is a little cut up I don't have a single scratch or a drop of blood on me."

I kept my eyes closed, but I had one fist raised in front of me, shaking with repressed anger. "And you're telling me that the thing which gave it away was me being covered in GLITTER?"

I heard Akune swallow hard. "Uh," he began, sounding very nervous. "Yeah?" he finally responded, sounding more like he was asking a question then giving an answer.

"Zenkichi," Medaka began, sounding surprised. "Are you trying to say…" she paused as I held up one hand to stop her, the other still shaking in front of me.

"One moment, Medaka-chan," I told her, my voice surprisingly calm. Turning, I opened my eyes.

When I had fought Shinobu long ago she had given me a list of her powers. There had been one which she had just called 'eye power'. It was a bit of an uninspiring name and but it had been one of her abilities I had born witness too directly. For the first time ever, I figured out just how to use it. Apparently, all you had to do was be so angry that your glares really could kill.

The wall I had opened my eyes on disappeared, erupting in a blast of cement, plaster, and steel support beams as it was pulverized by my rage given form. The blast was thunderous, echoing in the confined hallway as the force continued to press the wreckage on, shattering the wall beyond as well. The debris continued on, flying out into the night to rain down on the nearby buildings and roads beneath it, and I could only bring myself to half wonder if there had been anyone below it who might have gotten injured. It was late though, so it didn't seem likely.

Feeling much calmer after my impromptu temper tantrum, I turned back to the assembled students.

"I'm going to track down and kill that detestable writer of those wretched gratuitous jokes of novels," I declared. "Then, I'm going to make it my life quest to hunt down every other despicable creature who ever decided that attempting to romanticize my species in order to help satisfy their disturbing masturbatory fantasies about underage boys was an acceptable way to pass their time." My eyes were sulfurous, the light they were emitting enough to cast twisted shadows all throughout the corridor. "Maybe then they would know the proper amount of respect a vampire is due."

"[Ah]!" perhaps unsurprisingly, the only one who managed to speak in the sudden silence my actions had brought about was the irreverent Kumagawa. "[Now even Akune-chan has managed to turn Zenkichi-chan's eyes red]!" He paused for a second, finger coming up to rest on his chin in thought. Then he waved his hand, trying to get my attention. "[I think vampires are sexy too]!"

When I ignored him in favor of staring down Medaka, he pouted, slumping forward. "[Why can't I ever win]?" he moaned.

"So it's true, Zenkichi?" Medaka asked, her body tense as she took in the damage my eyes had caused and my suddenly still posture.

"Yes," I told her, feeling completely calm at having my nature finally revealed. It was as though I had reached some sort of epiphany, one which put all my anger and frustration someplace far away. It was as though none of what had been bothering me truly mattered any more. I felt almost peaceful.

Nonetheless, I was ready for what came next. Despite my stillness, the atmosphere in the hallway had once more become tense, with the promise of violence so thick it could almost be touched.

"And you knew of this, Shiranui?" Medaka glanced at where she had been dealing with the tiny girl, only to find that Shiranui had disappeared again, leaving behind a half full bucket of chicken. "When did she…?" Medaka actually sounded surprised at having not even noticed the other girl's disappearance.

"Probably right after I vowed vengeance on authors everywhere," I noted, my tone disinterested. "Shiranui is smart enough not to be around an angry vampire at night."

"I just can't deal with that girl," Medaka grumbled, before focusing back on me. "Still, to think that you've fallen so far, Zenkichi." Despite the sternness of her glare, she was still trying to fight back a smile at the thought of our fight continuing. "That you would even turn to something like this in order to strike at Anshin'in."

"Is that what you think happened, Medaka?" I asked, more curious than anything else. Akune had already said that they suspected me of having made some kind of back door deal in order to be able to attack Anshin'in like I had.

"Still, even this far in the darkness, I will not give up on you," Medaka continued. "It's plain to me that in order to have the strength to fight you made a deal with something terrible. Despite that though, you still came back to live as a human afterwards. Whatever you are now, there's still a part of you that wants to be human! And so long as there's life in my body, I will help you walk that path!"

"It's far, far too late for that now, Medaka," I told her softly. Medaka proved to be no longer able to hold back her smile.

"Be at ease, Zenkichi," she told me, and as she spoke her hair began to turn white, "I will see to it that you never want to do evil again." The change in color continued, and I could almost feel the increase in pressure as Medaka tensed, her body stiffening as she stood still. "Though since you too have chosen to abandon your humanity, it only seems fair that I do so too."

"She's actually using Mars mode," I heard Kikaijima in the background whisper. The girl had frozen after the revelation of my species, her zeal to disrupt our fight lost with the knowledge that I was no longer human.

Mars mode was Medaka at her absolute most dangerous. Part of Medaka's abnormality, 'The End', was the absolute ability to control herself. She was literally able to turn her reflexes on or off, to control every single muscle and cell of her body. Doing so allowed her to do such insane things as controlling her electrical impulses to copy abnormalities, speed up her body's natural healing, or even just turn off the natural human limiters which kept a person from damaging themselves by exerting too much force on their bodies. Combined with Medaka's unreal physical development, it meant that right now she was at a nearly inhuman level of ability at the moment.

"Still want to get in the way of their fight?" Akune asked the Treasurer, his voice shaky despite the sarcasm in his tone as he did so.

"Are you kidding?" Kikaijima shuddered. "This isn't a matter of just not wanting to interfere out of respect for a friend like you were doing earlier. We really might die if we got involved now!"

"Now," Medaka declared, crouching low in preparation of her attack. "As two beasts that have turned our backs on humanity, let's fight! Zenkichi!" she roared my name, and launched herself at me, taking the initiative.

I'd seen her punch in this state before. Once, when she had gotten into a fight with Unzen-sempai of the Student Enforcers, I had watched her literally put the younger boy through a wall. That was while he was wearing super reinforced clothing that used the most advanced technology to act as a defense against the explosives he tended to use. Despite being designed to handle incredible stress, Medaka's fists had still managed to hurt him beneath his protection.

Perhaps Medaka was expecting that as a vampire I had some sort of latent toughness, the same kind of inhuman constitution that seemed to pop up with abnormalities. Thus she was totally unprepared when rather than send me flying, the sheer force of her behind her fist actually caved in my chest, crushing my ribs in one brutal move, penetrating through my flesh and organs, and erupting out my back.

There was a moment of shock and dawning horror on her face as she realized she had just dealt me a lethal blow, when instead of me dying like I should, I simply reached up and grasped the arm buried in my chest. The horror changed to sick fascination as my body began to heal at a rate which surpassed even hers, my flesh actually dissolving and reforming, the blood and bits of meat which had left my body vanishing into thin air and reforming within me in their proper places.

Vampires didn't have any special toughness or durability. We didn't need it after all. Our greatest defense was our regeneration. Who needs to stop a blow which could crush rocks when the wound would just disappear a moment afterwards? And even among vampires, I was a special case.

Long ago, when I was still hunting down Kiss Shot's limbs, I had fought another vampire who specialized in hunting our kind. He had tried to recruit me, wanting me to join him as an exorcist. He had promised me that if I did join I would instantly become the leader of his little scourge of fellow vampire vampire hunters. I had turned him down, but the lesson that offer had taught me still lingered.

If I were to compare the world of the Kai to Hakoniwa Academy, I would have to say that Kiss Shot held a position similar to what Anshin'in used to have: a creature so vastly powerful and terrifying that there was none who would dare stand against her. As her subordinate, even with only a fraction of her power, I stood in the world of the Kai as the same level that Medaka herself held in the human world: a creature that stood head and shoulders above the rest, one which was not quite unassailable, but was still something to be treated with fear and awe.

"You know," I said, not at all perturbed by the arm in my chest. The only thing it was accomplishing was to keep my heart from fully regenerating. Sure, my blood wasn't flowing at the moment, but it wasn't like that would be enough to stop me. "I've always hated it when you called yourself a beast or a monster. You have no idea what it truly means to a monster. After all, in the end, you're only human."

My answering blow was an uppercut strong enough to send Medaka up and through the ceiling. Her fist made a sucking noise as it was forced out of my body, spraying dissolving blood and bits of organs again. This time, even my shirt began to heal, one of the beneficial aspects of being a vampire. I wasn't that good at the matter creation skill, but I could at least handle a little wardrobe wear and tear. Once more concrete and debris fell down on me, and I ignored it to instead focus on the new hole in the roof. I was beginning to honestly worry that all the structural damage this fight was causing would bring the entire cram school down if it kept up.

Still, I finally had my answer for how to fight Medaka. In the earlier fight I had let myself get sucked into her pace, fighting her like all her other enemies had: as a human would. At that pace I would have lost, and once more been drawn into Medaka's terms. Anshin'in had been right in a way when she said that Medaka was a Main Character who she couldn't fight against. In order to circumvent Medaka's natural ability to control the conflict around her, the former leader of Not Equal had instead tried to circumvent her nature by pitting me against her.

Rather than participate, Anshin'in had tried to change the nature of the confrontation. That would be the most effective method of combating Medaka on my own terms.

My genre wasn't Shounen Jump, after all. My genre was horror. It was time to start fighting like that instead.

I took a deep breath as my heart began pumping again, and focused. It only took me a second, but then my body dissolved; even my clothes vanishing as I changed my body into mist. It was another vampiric power, though one I had only dabbled with in the last few weeks. I had only just managed to learn how to include my clothes in the transformation after all. With my new form, my consciousness felt strange, a kind of tenuous state that matched my non-corporeal nature at the moment. It was a trick I had seen another vampire hunter use, a dampyr who had taken advantage of his immunity to normal vampire weakness to hunt.

Just like I had seen that hunter do years ago, I forced my new body to move, drifting without regard to gravity or natural rules, seeping out through the still crumbling hole Medaka had made and appearing on the roof. Medaka was already recovering, forcing herself to her feet at the edge of the drag trail she had left behind as she skidded across the roof. At first she didn't realize what she was looking at, but when I forced my body back into human form her eyes widened in comprehension.

"I see," she proclaimed, straightening and assuming a fighting position. It was rare to see her do that in Mars mode. When she fought like that, she tended to disregard human fighting methods, preferring to just tear into her opponent like the beast she proclaimed she was. I suppose it was a sign of how serious she was taking this. "So this is the power you acquired to defeat Anshin'in-san."

"You're wrong," I told her, shaking my head as I walked towards her, my pace unhurried. "I didn't become like this to fight that girl."

Under the waning moon, under the shadows the limbs of the twisted tree growing from the fourth floor cast, the both of us knew that this would be the final arena of our fight.

When I had closed to only a few dozen feet away, the two of us launched at each other. This time, instead of just taking the blow I dodged it, my movements unnaturally swift as I returned her original punch with a kick.

"Is that so, Zenkichi?" Medaka snapped, blocking my kick and returning with a punch of her own. She was grinning again, that mad blood thirsty look she had been wearing for most of our fight. She seemed to relish saying my name, as though the word was something sweet on her tongue. "Then why did you become a vampire? Did our last battle make that much of an impression on you?"

"You're wrong, Medaka," I told her, and this time I wasn't able to dodge her attack. It caved in my jaw, forcing me to wait a second before I could speak again. "I didn't become a vampire in response to any of this mess. That's why you're wrong. You're completely mistaken about WHEN I became a vampire."

"Oh? So when was it?" Medaka didn't look like she was even paying attention to the conversation, more focused on the fight itself than on the banter that accompanied it. She landed another blow, though this time I let myself take it just so I could return the favor, my foot burying itself in her sternum as she sent her fist to cave in my cheek again.

"The truth is, I became a vampire nearly three years ago," I told her, and her eyes snapped up, her concentration wavering for the first time at the confession. "That's right. I've been like this for years. And you. Never. Even. Noticed."

The revelation made her hesitate, and I took advantage of it, my next strike sending her skidding once more across the roof until she slammed into the thick trunk of the tree.

This was the nature of my attack on her, after all. People always misunderstood the true nature of horror. Horror wasn't about fighting monsters, or seeing people die. That kind of thing happened in all sorts of genres. Heroes always fought beasts, and nothing was more tragic for lovers then to be separated by death.

Horror was more sublime than that. Horror was about facing something inevitable, something unstoppable, and about knowing that whatever you did you'd never be able to be victorious. Horror was about coming face to face with a truth that you just couldn't bear, something which changed ones entire perspective, what made something which seemed innocuous and innocent into something which had in truth always been malevolent and cruel.

"You know why it is that I hate it when people romanticize vampires?" I asked Medaka, pressing my attack. She dodged the first strike, my fist burying itself into the bark of the tree behind her. I could feel my fist getting caught in the sharp wood, so instead of trying to pull it free I just wrenched my arm sideways, severing the fist at the elbow from the torque. There was a brief spray of blood, before the wound regenerated itself. "It's because they treat them like humans! They try to make becoming a vampire to be something mystical or spiritual, some kind of superior form of humanity!"

Medaka was actually paying attention to my words at this point, trying to dodge away enough to recover and regain initiative. I didn't let her. Since she was out of range of my fists or my feet, I simply grasped the same wrist which had just recovered and pulled, ripping my arm off at the shoulder and using the severed limb as an impromptu club. Never having even imagined such a gratuitous use of self-mutilation, I managed to catch her completely by surprise, the stump of my arm catching her square in the face before the limb started to dissolve.

"I wasn't reborn, or remade in some kind of superior form," I continued, using her flinch to once more get close to her. "The truth was I died, alone, in the dark, with the fangs of a monster in my throat!" Medaka flinched, her eyes widening as she heard the blunt summation of my experience. I took advantage of her lapse to bury my knee into her stomach, doubling her up as she gasped. "My veins were emptied and went flat, my heart burned as it tried to pump empty air, and my vision went dark. I died, Medaka. And no one ever even knew."

"Hitoyoshi-kun," a new voice broke in, so soft that it was only thanks to my inhumanity that I heard it. It looked as though the rest of the Student council had managed to make it to the roof, though they were making sure to keep themselves well clear of the two of us. It had been Kikaijima who had spoken, and from the tone of her voice she had been paying close attention to my words. For a gentle girl like her, my story might have been enough to break her heart.

"Despite that," I continued, Medaka recovering enough from my verbal assault to begin countering my relentless physical assault, even as she continue to pay attention to my story, "even though I died I still woke up afterwards. It was in this very building where I first learned about what I was. It was here that I tried to find a way to go back to being human. And you know what? I found a way. You have no idea what I had to go through, how hard I had to fight for it, but I actually managed to go back to being nearly completely human."

"As expected of you, Zenkichi! I knew you were strong! I knew I was right for liking you!" Medaka was regaining her smile as my words seemed to revitalize her. Perhaps they were reinforcing her belief in her earlier declaration that she would find some way to pull me from the darkness.

In horror, this would be the perfect moment for that hope to be crushed.

"At least, I was human, for a while," I continued. "And then you destroyed that for me."

"What did you say, Zenkichi?" Medaka demanded, her tone sharp. As though taking strength through indignation at my words, she moved. Using that insane power at her disposal, Medaka managed to land a strike. It looked like she had learned her lesson earlier about putting too much force in one place, because instead of piercing through me again this time it was my turn to go flying. I twisted midair, and when I impacted into the tree just above where I had left my fist behind earlier I caught on and held. My fingers and toes dug into the bark, and I hung there, like some kind of hunting cat poised for an attack.

"Do you know what the greatest limitation for a human turned vampire like me is?" I asked her the rhetorical question, knowing she would have no idea. "It's human sensibility. To use a vampire's powers, you have to think like a vampire. To do something inhuman, you have to be inhuman."

I shrugged, my tone reminiscent. "I was lucky in a way. When I was turned into a vampire I did so without any of the normal psychological changes. Most humans go berserk, and even the ones who don't tend to be a little more blood thirsty, a little more willing to kill. For me, it was as though my personality was completely untouched. It made it hard for me to use my vampire abilities besides the most basic of ones. After all, humans don't turn into mist, or make things explode with their eyes. Humans can't shape shift, or any of the other powers a vampire can hold."

I straightened, standing on the tree sideways, parallel to the ground as I craned my head to meet Medaka's eyes. "Then again, humans can't stand on walls either. They can't control electricity, or read minds. They can't make old scars open, or make plants grow or rot at will." Medaka's eyes widened as she realized what I was saying. "At least, that's what I thought at the time."

Because that was precisely what humans did, when they were abnormals or minuses. Miyakonojou had been the one to show me the wall walking skill, and had had the power to control electrical impulses. His friend, Yukuhashi had been able toread minds. The minus Shibuki Shibushi could cause old wounds to open. Emukai-chan could control plants. All that and a dozen other skills. Kumagawa's old 'All Fiction' could reshape reality to unmake events. Limiting peoples abilities, turning reactions on or off, redirecting all force, turning into liquid, catching bullets with tongues, hiding a hundred weapons in a school uniform; things which shouldn't be humanly possible happening with ease.

"Every battle we went too, my definition of humanity was changed a little more," I continued, walking down the tree to stand on the roof again. "Every fight changed my perspective just a bit further. I didn't even realize it was happening for a long time, despite the signs. Like back when I fought Munakata-sempai: that stamp which brought down the swords. Even as early as that I was being changed."

I threw back my head and laughed, something finally occurring to me. "You know, it's ironic: the flask plan was supposed to make the perfect human. Instead, it just helped create the perfect monster instead." I finally understood the reason that Anshin'in had died both laughing and crying.

"So you blame me for what happened, Zenkichi?" Medaka asked, edging backwards slightly as I once more drew even with her. I shook my head in response, causing her to pause.

"Blame? No, not really. But I do hold you responsible," I admitted. "Do you remember, back before I joined the Council, you once told me that you needed me, that all you wanted was for me to be by your side. So I was at your side, and I was fine with that. I stood by your side as more and more pieces of me slipped away."

I shook my head, coming to a stop before Medaka, my gaze earnest as I tried desperately to reach her with my words. I wanted her to understand this. I wanted her to react. I wanted to try and convey my feelings to her, whole hearted and honest.

"Then came the day when you looked down at me and told me that you couldn't believe a man of my level had gotten you to trust me. Just like that, despite everything, you walked away." I shook my head, even not even able to feel anger at the memory any more. "Tell me the truth, Medaka. Was I ever truly special to you? Did everything I did for you ever truly matter?"

Depending on her answer, two things might happen next. One of them would lead to us reconciling. The other, well, the other would prove just how well I knew my genre.

"I will tell you the same thing I told Treasurer Kikaijima," Medaka answered without hesitation. "There is no such thing as a special person in this world."

I closed my eyes, her words like a knife to my heart. Was that the reason that Kikaijima had been so panicked earlier when I had told that if she was right it meant that Medaka had never once considered me a friend?

Because I had been right?

"You're wrong," I told her, opening my eyes. I could feel trails of moisture leaking down my face, and I didn't have to see them to know that once more blood was staining my cheeks in place of tears. "There are special people. Just not for you."

I was gratified to see that Medaka's eyes narrowed at my words, but they did no more than that. "Enough talking," Medaka told me, settling back into a firmer fighting stance. "Nothing has yet been resolved between us. I promise you, Zenkichi, that I will not rest or stop until I have brought you back to the light. I will bear the weight of your worries, and I will help you regain your humanity."

No. It was too late for that now. If being in Medaka's company after having heard her true feelings for the first time was the price of humanity, then I wanted no more part of it.

"Back when you were Medaka II," I began, my voice contemplative, "You asked me a lot about the first time we met, when I was two years old. I couldn't really remember it since I was only two, but it seemed really important to you. Was it?"

"It was," Medaka confirmed, studying me closely as she waited for me to make a move. "Even if you don't remember it, it is still the one memory that I treasure most."

"Just a moment," I told her, and then used an ancient vampiric technique to stimulate the memory: open skull lobotomies.

I took the fingers of my right hand and drove them into my skull, burying them up to the third knuckle into my brain. Blood squirted out, as well as clear spinal fluid, and as I churned my fingers into my brain small pieces of grey matter oozed out from the pressure. It was a sight horrific enough for even Medaka to flinch back, clearly nonplussed at the sudden motion, and I was certain I heard either Akune or Kikaijima start to vomit at my casual self-violence.

"[Okay]," Kumagawa admitted, for once sounding a little put off by what he was witnessing. "[Even I have to think that's disgusting]."

"There," I said, nodding with my fingers still in my brain. Memories were nothing more than buried electrical impulses, after all. By churning my brain like this I forced parts which had fallen inactive to the forefront. It was a chaotic and peculiar feeling, as though all my thoughts were being forced through a blender and then poured into one ear simultaneously, but it got the job done. I pulled my hand free, and the damage I had dealt myself healed as though it had never happened. "I remember now."

All hail the practical uses of superior regeneration. I didn't even need to work out either for that matter. My body just shaped itself like into an idealized image of myself automatically.

"You do?" Medaka asked, clearly surprised at my declaration. I nodded.

"I was in the daycare of the hospital, wearing my blue hoodie," I told her, thinking back on the now recalled memory. "I was playing with that stupid wire puzzle, and you told me to give it to you. After you finished it I gave you the slide puzzle, then the rest of them. I told you that you were amazing, and you told me it was nothing in particular." I felt a sense of nostalgia creeping over me as I recalled the scene. "Finally, you asked me why were you born, and I told you that since you had made me happy, that was the reason: to make the people around you as happy as I was."

"Yes," Medaka sighed, and for the first time during the fight her smile wasn't tinged with a thirst for battle. "That was how it happened."

"I'll never forget that moment again," I told her, a small smile on my own face. "It was, after all, the only time you ever made me happy."

"What?" Medaka flinched at my declaration, her eyes widening at my words, but it was no longer the moment for talking.

The first time I had ever truly used my vampire powers was when one of the hunters I had fought for Kiss Shot's limbs had kidnapped Shiranui of all people to hold hostage against me. Back then, the best I could manage was to shape shift the ends of my arms, forming them into roots and vines to hold the hunter still while I saved Shiranui. I had still been only a few weeks old as a vampire then, and it was only desperation to save my friend which had let me feel inhuman enough to use that ability.

That lack of feeling wasn't a problem now.

My entire body exploded, twisting and shaping itself until it was something which more closely resembled the tree we shared the roof with then a human. I had no head or body, no internal organs, no bipedal shape. I was just a mass of dark and twisting wood. It helped that I had been exposed to Emukae's abilities quite often in the past, so for me the idea of working with plants was no longer as alien as some of the other abilities of a vampire. My consciousness was much firmer then it was when I had become mist earlier. Medaka might have expected me to attack her with kicks or punches, and might have been prepared for a strange ability or two, but for me to just suddenly lose all humanity and become some type of demonic vegetation was clearly outside even her impressive abilities of prediction.

I hammered into her, wrapping around her limbs and torso, tightening around her throat so that she couldn't even yell. The force of my vegetation body lifted her off the ground as though it was a tsunami, pushing her into the air only to arch back down and slam her into the ceiling, dragging her along the roof until I slammed her into the tree trunk once again. The tree, affected by the presence of my consciousness, began to shudder, moving as though it too were a part of me.

I wasn't certain if it was a combination of my consciousness' presence, or some untouched aspect of the power of matter creation, but I bent the wood of the tree to my will, altering it, shaping it. I wrapped it around Medaka's struggling body, forcing her arms to spread and her legs to lock together. Tough, twisted tendrils wrapped around her, locking her in place as though crucified to the trunk. Regardless of how strong she was, Medaka was still only human. Her enormous strength was used in conjunction to her limbs, and even the strongest in the world couldn't use that strength if they had no purchase or position.

Pulling free, I forced my body back into its human shape, reforming even my clothes so that they were once more whole and unblemished by the fighting of the night. Before me, captured and bound tight, Medaka hung in the moonlight, the pale shade of her hair in Mars mode looking like quicksilver as she struggled.

"I take back what I said earlier," I told her, and even as she fought to free herself she answered me, her voice tight as she strained against her bonds.

"About that time as kids together?" she asked, actually sounding a little relieved as she thought I was talking about my earlier declaration. I shook my head.

"No. About you having no place in this building. That's changed now. From here on out, it will belong to you instead."

"What do you mean, Zenkichi?" the unexpected topic caused her to pause for a moment, before her attempts to pull herself free resumed.

"This place, it's not a normal place." I took in the extra holes in the roof our fight had made, and the way the shape of the trunk as it speared through the building. "This is a place where there are no happy endings, where everyone suffers equally. From tonight onwards, it will be yours."

"What?" I definitely had Medaka's attention now, and she glared down at me. "Just what are you planning, Zenkichi!"

"Planning?" I repeated, before realizing she probably thought that what I meant was something violent or depraved. "No, nothing like that," I shook my head quickly. "The only thing I'm going to do now is leave."

"Leave?" Medaka repeated, confusion seeping back into her face. "What do you mean?"

"Just what I said. You told me earlier that there was no such thing as a special person, Medaka. Well, I'm going to change that. I'm going to MAKE myself special," the glowing of my eyes added a hint of malice to my otherwise soft spoken words. "Would you like to know what happened to Anshin'in?"

The apparent change in topic made Medaka frown. "Before tonight I wasn't certain, but now I assume that you had killed her. Unless…" Medaka trailed off. "Unless you made her a vampire too. Is that what you intend? To kill me and make me endure the same thing you have?"

"Not at all," I told her. "And you were right earlier. I did indeed kill Anshin'in. I drained every last drop of blood she had. And afterwards," I shrugged uncaringly, "I devoured her corpse."

"You did what?" Medaka asked, disgust in her tone, and for the first time that night, even after she learned that I was a vampire, I noted a glimmer of horror forming in her.

"It can't be helped," I explained, shrugging again. "When a vampire feeds, unless they get rid of the corpse afterwards the one they drink from will become a vampire as well. But the thing is, vampires don't generally like the company of other vampires, so they prefer to dispose of the people they fed on. The best way to do that is to eat them afterwards. That way every last bit of nourishment can be gotten from each feeding, and they don't have to worry about leaving any evidence behind. So after I killed her, I consumed every last bit of Anshin'in: flesh, organs, bone, even the hair."

It had probably been the act which had started causing my vampiric powers to start manifesting even in my mostly human form. To kill a person isn't that uncommon, humans do it all the time. But to devour them? To cannibalize every bit of them? That was about as inhuman an act as there is. It had probably been the last step my already slipping humanity had needed in order to start accessing even my reduced vampiric abilities in my mostly human mode.

"And that's what I'm going to keep doing," I told Medaka, letting her know what I planned. "I will leave, and never again appear before you. After this I will kill others, and devour them. I will never again go back to being human, I will instead be a vampire with all my heart."

Leaning closer, I met Medaka's horrified look with my own. "And you will forever have to know that it was due to you that I started doing so. That if I had never met you, I wouldn't have given in to my monstrous side. More than that, you will spend the rest of your life knowing that you could have stopped me. If you had noticed what I had become sometime earlier in the three years before and tried to help me then. If you had never told me that you wanted me beside you as you fought against people which eroded my human sensibility. Or if you had never turned me away and made me your enemy. There were so many ways that this could have been avoided."

I leaned back, taking a few steps away so I could take one last look at her. As though realizing that I was being serious, Medaka began to redouble her effort to free herself. I could hear the wood creaking as she actually began making headway in breaking them.

"That's how I will be special to you, Medaka," I concluded. "I will be the one you couldn't make happy. I'm the one who you can never help, and never reform. I will always be your greatest failure."

Just like with Shinobu, no matter how hard I tried, there would be no way that everyone could be happy with this fight. For me, the one thing I wanted was for Medaka to have been my friend, for her to have felt something about me, for all the years we had been together not to have been a lie. I had never wanted to fight her, to be her enemy. I had only wanted to be her friend, to be in some way special to her.

Since that couldn't happen, I will spend the rest of my life knowing that no matter what I did, it didn't matter to the one I loved more than anyone else in the world. Thus, I would not be happy. For Medaka, she will have to bear the weight of her failure, of knowing that despite her best efforts and no matter how much she wanted to fight against me, she would never be able to meet me again, never be able to reform me, and that no matter how many people she made happy after this there will always be one she had failed. And thus Medaka would not be happy either.

"Zenkichi, stop," Medaka ordered me, her voice tense as she tried to free herself. On the corner of the roof I could make out the rest of the Student Council as it tried to figure out what to do, if they should interfere or just stay still and hope that I didn't start my new life as a proper vampire by killing and eating them too.

I left them be. I considered warning them about what would happen next. They had just had their first encounter with the Kai, after all. After this there would probably be others, and I wouldn't be around to help them. But then again, they were each of them intelligent and powerful people on their own. I had been the only normal one among them after all. They would be able to take care of themselves.

"Good bye, Medaka-chan," I told my oldest friend, who had never been my friend at all.

"Zenkichi, please stop!" Medaka said again, her tone pleading. I ignored her, turning away and making my way back to the hole in the roof. "Zenkichi, please! Stop! Don't!" Desperation started to enter her tone. I ignored it. As I made it to the edge of the hole, I heard her shout one last time. "ZENKICHI!"

Then I turned to mist, and I heard nothing else.

*Scene Break*

I only made it as far as the exit to the cram school, just outside of fence encircling the entire lot, when I reformed myself back into a human shape.

"Well, well," Shiranui drawled, leaning against the plank fence just below a 'Construction Site: Access Prohibited' sign. The tiny girl had a relaxed, almost languishing look on her face as she gnawed on a bone, her customary bucket grasped lazily in one hand and hanging down at her side. The bone had already been stripped clean of meat, and Shiranui's too white teeth looked like miniature daggers as she crunched away on what had once been a drumstick bone. "Looks like you did quite a job this time, Zenkichi-kun."

"When you praise me in that tone of voice, I can't help but think you're planning something," I told her casually. I narrowed my eyes at her. "And don't think I've forgotten about that whole sparkle thing either."

"Eh?" Shiranui gasped, looking completely innocent even as she finished crunching her way through her grizzly meal. "Sparkles? Where?"

"You're not fooling anyone," I told her, before releasing a sigh and leaning back next to her. We must have made for an odd looking pair: a tiny girl with a bucket of chicken and a tall boy barefoot in white leaning side by side at an abandoned construction site like delinquents in the middle of the night.

"Something on your mind?" Shiranui prompted me, before holding her bucket out to me, a wordless offer to help myself. I half expected her to be pulling another prank, maybe for something like a bear trap to snap shut on me if I tried to take her up on it, but when I took a piece nothing like that happened, and she instead just let the bucket settle back down at her side.

"You know," I began, taking the first bite from the only piece of food Shiranui had ever shared with me. "You always have an air about you, as though you were about to devour the people around you. I've never minded," I admitted, chewing on the piece of flesh as I did so. "I kind of like that part about you."

"But…" Shiranui prompted, crunching yet another sliver free from the bone in her hand.

"But I just can't figure out what this was all about," I admitted, waving my hand behind me. I had not gone so far that I couldn't hear the sounds coming from the roof. It was muffled, not quite audible, but even now I could still hear Medaka's voice as she shouted for me. "You were obviously trying to accomplish something, what with constantly selling me out and telling the others what I was up to and where I was. So just what was all this about?"

"Hmmm," Shiranui's teeth showed again, the deceiving smile of a predator before it snapped its helpless prey up. "Say, Zenkich-kun. Just what kind of person do you think I am?"

"A hungry one," I told her bluntly, and her grin turned amused for a moment before sliding back into malicious. She was silent for a moment longer, before finally shrugging, and crunching her bone again.

"You know, I'm the kind of person who'll just sit back and record their friend getting mauled on by wild beasts just for a laugh," Shiranui reminded me, jaws snapping as she spoke. "I'm the kind of girl who'd even give them sausages just so I can make the youtube video that much more amusing."

"As if I could ever forget that," I muttered, knowing just which video she was talking about. That damn thing had like two million hits by now. Shiranui grinned again, before the expression slowly slid from her face.

"Then again," she continued, her tone unusually quiet for the irreverent girl. "If someone else were to ever hurt my friend besides me, well, I don't think I'd ever forgive them. I think that, in return, I would just have to destroy their lives completely."

I blinked, my head snapping down so that I could stare at her in shock. That's what this was about. Her setting me up, her selling me out, it had never been about me at all.

It had been about Medaka.

The same Medaka who had put me through a wall, the same Medaka who had carelessly tossed me aside, that Medaka was now alone on a ceiling, screaming wordlessly into the night. The Medaka that had hurt me was now hurting just as bad, if not worse.

And here was Shiranui, just close enough to be able to hear her pain.

I couldn't help but let loose a low whistle. Wow. I'd never had anyone destroy someone's life in order to avenge an insult on me before. I wasn't certain if I was horrified or impressed. Either way, I was actually a little touched by the act.

As though realizing my train of thoughts, Shiranui suddenly let loose a blinding and innocent smile. "Psyche!" she chirped, pushing away from the wall with a twirl that left her standing directly in front of me. "Like I have any friends!" Laughing, she tossed the shattered drumstick in her hand away, pulling out a new piece and ripping a chunk out of it.

It looks like I might have been mistaken about Shiranui. It wasn't so much that she was the worst best friend ever. It might be more that she was the best worst friend ever.

"Shiranui," I spoke up impulsively, not stopping to think about what I was about to say. "Do you want to come with me?"

Shiranui froze, both the bucket and the piece of chicken she was holding slipping out of her suddenly nerveless fingers. Her eyes darted towards me briefly before she looked away.

"Ah, Zenkichi-chan," she sang, her voice high pitched and mocking. "What are you saying? Was that supposed to be a proposal? You should be more careful about the kind of jokes you make!"

"I'm not joking," I told my best friend seriously. Her growing grin as she tried to brush off my offer faded again, and she gave me a look through narrowed eyes.

"You have to be," she told me. "After all, I know where you're going next. I doubt SHE would care to have company."

Of course Shiranui knew what would happen after this. There was no way she didn't see this happening, not after she had worked so hard to make the fallout between Medaka and I so permanent. Still, despite knowing that, the tiny girl still wouldn't say the name.

"I don't care," I told her, meaning it. "I'd make her go along with it somehow. I'd beg, or threaten, or whatever." For a moment, Shiranui was quiet, not moving at all as she closed her eyes. Then she gave a little shiver, and opened her eyes to give me a serious look.

"You should be careful about saying things like that, Zenkichi," Shiranui told me in a dangerous tone, not using an honorific on my name. "If you say something like that again, well, then I'll have no choice but to swallow you whole afterwards."

"I see," I said softly, knowing that this would be her final answer. Shiranui glanced away, a small whimsical smile appearing. "Well then," I began, knowing it was time for me to leave. If I didn't, then Shiranui might just change her mind about not eating me up. "I guess this is goodbye." I smiled at her, an honest and warm one. "Thanks Shiranui. For everything."

She snorted, glancing away as she reached down to pick up her bucket. "Get outta here," she told me, waving her free hand dismissively. "You're giving me a bellyache. I never could stomach sweet things, after all."

With a shake of my head, I pushed off the wall. We gave each other one look, both of us sharing a small smile, and then without a word we both turned and made our way in opposite directions down the streets.

*Scene Break*

I didn't go home. It felt somehow unfair to my mother, as though the fact that doing what I was about to do without letting her know was wrong, but if I went home there was a chance that Medaka or the others would find me. I'd give her a call later, I suppose, letting her know I was alright, but the thought was only a distant one.

In many ways, I just didn't care about what happened to her, or to a lot of the people I knew. It was unfair to them, probably crossing right over the border to outright cruel, but I really just didn't care. I hadn't been trying to ham it up to Medaka when I had told her I died three years ago. My life had truly ended that night. When it came down to it, I was nothing more than a walking corpse that had managed to fool everyone around it into thinking it was still human for a while.

Even I had tricked myself into believing that lie, and I knew better than anyone how wrong that was.

This parting was just something which had been delayed for three years. Maybe there was even some resentment there, at the woman who raised me. Yes, I loved her, yes, she had done the best she could without a father to help, but in the end she was also the woman who had been so busy working, in caring for other children who were more interesting and special than I had been, that she hadn't even noticed when her son had died.

I couldn't go back to the cram school either, not with Medaka knowing about it, with her maybe even still there. The same was true for Hakoniwa as well.

In the end, there was only one place that I still felt a connection to, one that I sought out.

They never had fixed the lamps. It was well after midnight by this point, and for anyone else the park would have been frighteningly dark; the only source of illumination for hundreds of yards a single pool of light somewhere in the center.

It was beneath that single lamp that I stopped, putting one hand up to touch the metal pole with a feeling of nostalgia.

"Shinobu," I said, and I felt the presence in my shadow rising up. "Do you recognize this place?"

"Indeed," the tiny vampire nodded, her voice carelessly loud in the dark. "How might I forget the domain where I nearly perished?"

Puffing herself up, she fiddled with her flight cap for a moment, before nodding once. Walking up to the lamp, she put her hands on her hips and glared at it. It had been here that I first came across her adult form, slumped and unmoving as it leaned against the pole for support. As though in revenge for her piteous form at the time, Shinobu gave the lamp a punitive kick with her tiny bare feet before she started to hop in place, clutching the same foot as she muttered curses.

It was an intolerably cute sight, though I carefully kept any such amusement from showing on my face. Shinobu paused, and gave me a small glare as she no doubt picked the thoughts out of my head, but she seemed to decide that as long as I didn't voice them she would let them slip.

"Hmph," she instead grunted. A smile began to spread across her lips as she gave me an appraising look that traveled from the tip of my head to the bottom of my feet. "Thou 'twas in rare form tonight, my subordinate," she admitted, her tone praising. "Indeed, it has long since passed the time when thou should let that replacement master know her place."

Of course Shinobu knew what had transpired less than an hour ago. She had been in my shadow the entire time, feeling my emotions and my thoughts as Medaka and I had our final confrontation. It looked like she too was sharing Shiranui's malicious delight in Medaka's loss.

Honestly, why was it that all the women in my life were so scary?

"What did you think of it?" I asked her, knowing that she would have more to say on the subject.

"Though thou fought with mere mediocrity at the beginning, in the end thou showed thy true might as a vampire," Shinobu was nearly gushing as she skipped about me. Letting her enjoy herself, I settled back, ignoring the nearby park benches so that I could put my back against the light pole instead. "Though if it 'twas I, I would nay have spared the impudent food's life, but thine chastisement was perhaps more effective than my own would have been. I praise thee, my servant. In honor of thy accomplishments, I shall allow thee to stroke my head!"

I was never quite certain why patting her head counted as being an honor, but it was something that Shinobu rarely offered. Thus, with great seriousness, I waited until she removed her flight cap so that I could rub her head as though she were a cat. The little vampire seemed to enjoy the treatment, and if she had indeed been a cat I would have no doubt been hearing her purr up a storm.

"Still," Shinobu continued after she had deemed me honored enough to pull away and return her flight cap to its rightful place. "I find myself surprised, servant. In the past whenever thou came in conflict with thy former substitute master thy heart was always burdened after. Yet now I feel no such conflict within thee."

It was those kinds of observations which had always comforted me in the past. It was such a vast difference between Shinobu and Medaka after all. Whereas Medaka was the same age and the same species as I had been, she had never once displayed the same perceptiveness as Shinobu did. Shinobu, who had spent five hundred years as a creature completely separate from humanity, had displayed more compassion and empathy then Medaka had ever shown. The vampire had frequently paused to reflect on her actions, and when she realized what she had done that had offended me or made me upset, she would admit her mistake and apologize.

It was that capacity for comprehension which helped me make the final decision, which put to rest the last lingering doubt in me.

"Shinobu," I began, my voice soft. "You once made me an offer, before we had our final fight. Do you remember what it was?"

Shinobu paused, her exultant smile slipping from her face. "Indeed," she nodded, pursing her lips. "I recall well when thy spurned my offer to live together with me."

"Is it too late for me to take you up on it?"

Shinobu stood still for a moment, before her expression turned angry. "If thou speak in jest, my subordinate, then know that I will be most distraught with thee."

"I'm not joking," I told her earnestly. Back then, as now, I had been captivated by Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Hearts Under Blade. It had been when I was still recovering from Medaka's complete dismissal, when I had still dealing with the issue that my oldest friend didn't feel for me like I had for her. It had been partly my disgust at having witnessed Kiss Shot feeding which had driven me from her in horror, and partly my growing belief that even if things wouldn't be the way I had hoped with Medaka I would still be able to hold a place in her life.

Now though I knew that Medaka would never have a place for me, not like I wanted anyway. I had only wanted to be her friend, but she would only have me as her enemy. And it wasn't like I had any reason to hold Kiss Shot's eating habits against her anymore. I hadn't even realized I was committing the same sin when I had done just that until days afterwards.

More than that, after three years with Shinobu I knew her better than I had back then. I knew the vampire who had grown tired of her life of solitude, who was so sick of fighting alone against the world that she would even accept a diminished half life in order to have some measure of peace. The woman who was so lonely that even with her subordinate treating her almost like a pet, of not allowing her to die nor allowing her to be free, she would still reach out to me.

The woman I had grown to love. It was a different love then I felt for Medaka, even now, but that didn't make it an inferior love at all.

"Thou art only making this offer now due to thy conflict with thy substitute master," Shinobu pointed out, crossing her arms with a huff. Her indignation only lasted for a moment before she paused. "Though perhaps that is acceptable," she acknowledged. "Thy would be mine second subordinate, after all. Perhaps it is fitting that I be thy second master in turn."

"At least you'll know I was well trained," I told her, a twisted half smile on my lips as I joked. Shinobu simply nodded, taking my statement at face value as she started to gnaw at her lips.

"Know this, my subordinate," she finally declared. "If thou does take mine offer now, know that I will still be wrought with you for a time. I cannot allow such a slight to go unpunished."

"I understand," I nodded. "But the punishment would pass in time."

"Truly," Shinobu nodded, a hesitant tone in her voice forming as she began to realize how serious I was about my request. "Also know that I shall never allow myself to return to this state again."

"Honestly, I never should have forced you into it in the first place," I nodded again.

"Life with me shall not be easy," she added, looking away almost bashfully as she began to rub one foot against the back of her other leg. "I have always been beset upon by those seeking my life. Those knaves will seek thine own too, if thou were to accept."

"I've grown used to fighting," I assured her, rubbing my shoulder awkwardly. If there was anything life with Medaka had taught me in the last few months it was how to fight.

"Thou will spend the rest of thy life beside me," Shinobu pointed out, and I was beginning to get the impression that she wasn't so much as hesitating or being reluctant as she was merely letting me know everything I could expect if she followed through with what I was offering her.

"I'd like that," I told her, smiling as I did so. She returned my smile with one of her own, a hesitant, almost bashful thing.

"If thou art serious, then close thy eyes," she told me at last. "It is improper to watch a lady eat."

"Of course," I told her, and did as she ordered. It only took a few moments before I felt her weight as she climbed into my lap, her customary feeding position. The gentle feel of her fingers on the edge of my hoody were warm as she cleared my throat from any obstructions.

And just like before, the feeling of her fangs in my neck was almost comforting to me.

There was one brief moment of doubt as she drained my blood, the moment right before she crossed the final threshold and once more drove me back into being fully a vampire. I ignored it.

My eyes were closed, but I could feel as the final drop of blood in my body returned to her. It was like a flaring of the sun as the sheer massive power of Kiss Shot Acerola Orion Heart Under Blade, the Iron-blooded, Hot-blooded, Cold-blooded vampire, the Kai Killer herself, returned to its true strength. I felt her shift, hearing a ripping sound as the human clothes she had been using were torn as her body changed back to its true shape, followed by the whisper of smooth cloth she used her returned power to create clothing out of nothing for herself. The tiny weight of her childish straddling was replaced by the feeling of long thighs running across my legs and her full figure pressing against my chest.

"Open thy eyes, my servant," she told me, and I did so. I was greeted by the sight of the adult face I had first come across under this very lamp post.

"Welcome once more, to the Night World," Kiss Shot greeted me, a smile on her face.


	5. Chapter 5

Those Who Love Monsters

Chapter Five: Epilogue

_Author's notes: Well, here it is. Truthfully, as is my habit, I ended up finishing this chapter only a few hours after I had finished chapter 4. I just held off on publishing it a few days in order to give readers a chance to find 4, and so that I could post it on Samhain._

_Let's see. A lot of positive review for 4. I'm actually glad for that. I think this might be my most ambitious story yet, not for length, but because it straddled a thin line between being an actual honest story that presented themes and ideas, and being just another of the trashy character bash stories that are so common. I was dealing with a tricky character in tricky a tricky situation, and I'm glad I managed to make something that people felt was worth reading rather than just being self indulgent trash. I have to wait to see how 5 is received to be certain that I managed not to screw this up, but I have tentative feelings of pride so far in what I've written._

_That being said, on to the chapter itself. I promised that Medaka would get better press in this chapter, and I like to think I've done her proud. A problem with writing this close to the actual edge of Medaka Box is that the author's original intent hasn't been made. Thus, any fan work is being done on the case of assumption on what is going to happen. So far in TWLM Medaka has played the major role as villain, but that doesn't mean I don't like her, or think she's a bad character. I actually really like Medaka. I think she's a stunning example of the 'helping others be their best self' type hero taking to unnatural lengths in order to reveal the flaws inherent in BEING that kind of hero. She's both an archtype and a deconstruction at the same time. Still, she needs a logical reason for acting like she did, both in TWLM and in the original Medaka Box, and I think I have an idea why._

_See story below for details._

_Anyway. Closing comments in general. I thought about putting the whole author's notes on the bottom of the page, but I think the most important part of a story is the ending, and I didn't want there to be anything else after the last line, so I have to be a bit vague up here._

_More of my thoughts on horror make themselves known in this chapter. It's a bit of a distant ending, but I'm fond of those so it should be no surprise to any of my previous readers. People will claim Zenkichi is out of character, but to be fair when a character starts off acting close to their original canon selves and then steadily changes it's not technically being out of character. It's called character development. So quit whining so damn much about it. He stopped technically being Zenkichi the moment I fed him to a vampire years before the story started. Of course he's freaking different now!_

_As for the title, my thoughts on it are that Zenkichi technically loved three different monsters in the course of his life. Medaka, who was so perfect she became inhuman. Shinobu, who wasn't human to begin with but still manages to act like one. And finally, the third monster is of course Shiranui: who is probably the scariest monster in the story. Conversely, Zenkichi too was a monster that all three of them loved. Or maybe he became a monster BECAUSE of all three of them loving him._

_And so enjoy this story where Medaka and Zenkichi finally talk it out, where things once more go horribly wrong for everyone involved, and you get to chose which of the three possibilities is the true happy ending._

_If any of them could be considered happy at all._

*Story Start*

I didn't know what to expect when I revisited the address of the old cram school. Once, a long time ago, I had tried to help a haunting ghost find her way home only to discover just how quickly an urban environment can change. Thus, I hadn't really been certain what I would discover when I went to my old haunt.

The neighborhood looked very different than it used to, that was for certain. What had once been small residential homes, the kind that housed a family of six at most had been replaced with dirty, wide apartments. They were generally low swept, only two or three stories at most, but wide in the way only low income housing complexes could be. I had thought that the cram school would most likely be just another such complex.

So it was with a great deal of surprise that when I arrived it was to discover that the old wreck of a building was still there. It looked identical to what it did the last time I saw it. It was such a hauntingly nostalgic site that I couldn't resist it. I had only meant to swing by and take a look for old time's sake, but when faced with its inviting desolateness I couldn't keep myself from slipping inside.

In retrospect, I probably should have known better. It was hard to keep up sometimes with just how quickly technology seemed to be advancing these days, so I had no idea if it was some sort of undetected sensor which caught me, or if she had only shown up because she too had made it a habit to spend her evening hours here.

Whatever the case was, it was while I was eying the wrecked room that had once been the fourth classroom on the fourth floor that I heard her footsteps approaching me from behind.

"It's been a long time," she noted, and I took a deep breath, not turning around as I did so. Yes, that was her scent alright. It was the same robust odor of sweat and hormones, that briefest of hints of that lavender soap she tended to favor, combined with a coppery tang which was far more familiar to me.

"So it has," I admitted, before heaving a sigh. "It's been over a hundred and sixty years now. Tell me: just how is it that you're still menstruating, Medaka? Shouldn't you have been through menopause by now?"

"Over a century and a half and that's the first thing you can comment on?" Medaka huffed, sounding put out by my blunt question. "I'd think you'd spent a little too much time around Shiranui when we were younger, if I wasn't already completely certain of that fact."

"You two never did get along, did you?" I remembered, a wistful smile spreading across my face as I turned. "You look surprisingly good, for an old lady," I noted, before giving a little sigh. "Though it seems like you still haven't developed any shame yet."

"You need to ask?" Medaka noted, giving a small huff as she did so. Pulling a fan out of her exposed cleavage, she struck a pose, just like she used to whenever she felt the need to strip to her underwear and look at herself in the full body mirror she had kept in the Student Council room. "I, Medaka Kurokami, have never once in all my years been ashamed of my body!"

The truth was that even after a century and a half, Medaka looked closer to forty then she did to a hundred and eighty. There was a bit of grey in her hair, yes, but her body was still as toned and fit as it ever was and her features seemed to hold that certain ageless characteristic that some women found themselves lucky enough to grow into on their own. It was the kind of face which looked the same from the age of twenty to fifty, a classic kind of beauty. Her bust seemed to have held up well over the years too, I noted. It was exceedingly easy to tell, after all, considering just how much of it she was displaying.

All said and done, the woman standing before me in just a marginally too short black pencil skirt and black stockings topped by a black blouse that was unbuttoned to nearly the top of her stomach was still so good looking that no one looking at her on the street would ever suspect just how old she truly was.

"I see you changed your wardrobe," I noted, cocking my head to the side. "Though you at least kept the color the same."

"It's been decades since I wore a school girl uniform," Medaka dismissed, snapping her fan shut and giving me a pointed look. She seemed to think of something and began to tap her fan thoughtfully against her chin. "Though I could probably still pull it off if I tried. I wonder where I put that old thing…" Trailing off, she shook her head quickly, dismissing the errant thought. "You, on the other hand," she began, giving me a once over of her own, a bit of wonder in her tone. "You haven't changed a bit. Literally."

"What can I say," I shrugged, dismissing her observation. "I like this outfit." I suppose it was a bad habit of vampires everywhere, but we tended to be pretty limited in our choice of wardrobes. The only time I had ever seen Kiss Shot not wearing that chic dress of hers had been when she was still Shinobu, or when she was simply naked. I had found within myself a deep fondness for pale and faded jeans combined with white hoodies, though I never did get back into the habit of wearing socks and shoes.

"I wasn't talking about the outfit," Medaka pointed out, snapping open her fan again, though this time it seemed to be less for the fashion of it and more to use it as a cooling implement. "Though your clothes do look a little out of place in this season."

It was hot out, the kind of blistering summer night combined with humidity well over the ninetieth percentile that was guaranteed to cause sweat to stick the clothes to the body. I could already make out dampness forming on Medaka's body in various places, though it seemed like the generous ventilation her cleavage was getting was probably helping.

On the other hand, despite my long sleeves and fully concealed body, there was no sign of perspiration on me.

"What can I say?" I repeated, shrugging again. "Vampire."

"So I've heard," Medaka told me, her tone vaguely ironic. She opened her mouth as though to say something, but then she paused, closing it with an audible clack. The silence began to stretch on as I watched her expression change from conflicted, to angry, and back to conflicted.

"I thought you would be in New Lebanon right now," I finally added to break the growing silence. "Seeing as you just negotiated peace in the Middle East, shouldn't you be over there getting ready for your eighth Nobel Prize?"

Medaka shrugged, apparently dismissing her achievement of a feat that many people never thought would be possible ever since World War Three turned into the Second Cold War. "Anyone could have done it," she said bluntly. "I just happened to be the one that got around to it first."

I actually shook my head, almost having expected something like this, but her continued casual dismissal of her outrageous achievements seemed to have become a lifetime habit. "You mean anyone could have ousted eight corrupt theocratic dictatorships based around the concept of 'Eternal Jihad', negotiated a disarmament treaty between three of the countries with the largest stock pile of nuclear and biological weapons, and then convinced all of them to engage in a free trade and open border agreement similar to the European Alliance and the New Empire of North America?"

"Exactly," Medaka nodded, my sarcasm going right over your head. Instead, a small smile began to crook at her lips. "It seems that you've been following my achievements rather closely, Zenkichi."

"It's hard not to hear about the accomplishments of 'The Immortal School Teacher'," I reminded her, finding the name the press had dubbed the well-aged abnormal in front of me oddly appropriate. It looked like I wasn't the only one who found her apparent youth to be disturbing.

"You on the other hand," Medaka continued, her smile slipping, "well, you are a very hard man to find."

"It's almost like I live in different world entirely now," I quipped, my small smile just a stretch of my lips. I rarely smiled larger than that these days. It tended to expose my fangs, and nobody likes that kind of blatant display.

"I've spent over a century trying to find you," Medaka continued, folding her arms under her breasts and tapping her elbow with her fan as she continued. "And I've invested billions, even trillions of yen into the investigation. And then you go and show up here, as though nothing ever happened."

"Well, I had heard you were in the Middle-East," I shrugged, turning away so that I could take in the decaying wreckage of the cram school. "I didn't think you'd be around. I was surprised to find this place," I admitted, reaching one hand out to run it over the rough edge of the door frame. "I would have thought that this place collapsed by now. Hasn't the owner found a better use of the land yet?"

"I'm the owner," Medaka admitted casually. "After our last meeting I bought it. When the town council tried to pressure me into condemning it, I bought them. And when this place finally collapsed, I hired the best construction crew in the nation to rebuild it to specifications."

"You did all that?" I asked, surprised. I turned slightly so I could take in Medaka's expression. I couldn't quite suppress a small smile again, one which she answered seemingly despite herself. "That's… Well, that actually relieves me a little. This place had a lot of memories for me, after all."

"For me too," Medaka nodded. Her expression fell immediately afterwards. "So the only reason you came was because you thought I was out of the country?"

"Did you think there was any other?" I prompted her, my tone bland. I heard her sigh, before I continued. "Well, there was one other reason," I admitted.

"That being?" Medaka asked, her tone cautious.

"I was thinking about visiting Shiranui's grave," I admitted.

"Oh," Medaka said, her voice softer. "So you knew she died then?"

"We're both pushing one hundred and eighty," I reminded her. "It's natural that not everyone managed to make it as long as we had." My tone turned nostalgic again. "I was at her funeral, actually."

"You were?" Medaka broke in, sounding surprised. "I didn't see you there."

"I didn't want to be seen," I reminded her. "She was a hell of a girl, that Shiranui," I reminisced. "You know, she was the godmother of my daughter." I snorted, shaking my head at the thought. A human being asked to be a vampire's godmother. I was almost positive they had been able to make snowmen in hell that day.

"Godmother?" Medaka repeated, her tone tight. "So you had a daughter? No, more importantly, so you there was someone you stayed in contact with? And it was that girl of all people?"

"It wasn't so much that I stayed in contact," I admitted with a shrug. "It was more like every couple of months Shiranui would just show up on her own, bucket of chicken in hand." I grimaced, unable to wrap my head over just how easily the human garbage disposal that had been my best friend had always been able to locate me. "Though she did usually time it whenever Kiss Shot and I were separated for a few days. Those two never did get along."

"I nearly drove my family to bankruptcy," Medaka began, her tone outraged. "I had entire governments searching for you. I scoured the earth so relentlessly that there were times when I probably knew more about what was going on than entire intelligence agencies. Not once did I ever find even a trace of you. And you're telling me that girl would just show up whenever she pleased?"

"It was Shiranui," I reminded her.

Medaka sighed. "Good point," she conceded. "I think I hated that girl."

"Hold the presses," I joked. "Medaka Kurokami, hating someone. I think that might be a sign of the apocalypse."

"Ha," Medaka told me, though she only said it rather than actually laughed. "You know, there were times when I was ready to give up on finding you," she admitted, her tone distant with remembered anguish. "But every time I was about to move on, that bitch would show up and remind me. She never once let me get over you."

"When Shiranui decides to get revenge, she was always remarkably thorough," I noted. I missed her. It had been nearly eighty years since she passed on, and I still sometimes found myself expecting her to show up, tiny as in my memories like she was in high school, malicious grin and diabolical schemes in hand.

"I always thought that you two shouldn't get along," Medaka muttered, though even her grumbling was touched with a fond reminiscence. Time could heal just about everything, if enough of it passed. Outliving so many people for so long, more and more you tended to find yourself dismissing the bad and recalling the good.

"So you had a child?" Medaka finally spoke up. "And a wife as well?"

"We never actually married, but I suppose that's the best term for it," I admitted. It was a mostly human convention anyway, marriage. We had been lovers, and mates, master and subordinate. That had been enough for us.

"Both vampires," Medaka noted, her tone growing serious. "And will I get to meet the two?"

"They've both gone on ahead," I told her. "I was planning on catching up to them after I stopped by here."

"I see," Medaka said, her voice edged with iron. "Zenkichi," she continued. "What were you planning, coming here?"

"What do you mean?" I asked her, a smile beginning to form. It didn't take a genius to see where this was going to go, but I could allow it to play out.

"Were you planning on killing here?" Medaka said bluntly.

"And if I was?" I asked her playfully.

"Even if I'm often absent, I'm still the headmistress of Hakoniwa Academy. I'm also the mayor of this town. I won't allow anyone under my protection to be harmed," she told me.

"Oh?" I teased her. "Is that all?"

"No," Medaka admitted. "Last time we met, you had a chance to say a great number of things. It's been a hundred and sixty years since then. In that time, there were a lot of things that I wanted to say to you too."

"Still nobly trying to make everyone around you happy?" I asked, egging her on.

"No," Medaka said bluntly. "This is only my selfish desire."

"Hmph," I grunted. "It looks like you've changed a bit then."

"I've learned a lot over the years," Medaka admitted. I got no other warning than that before I felt her foot impact into my ribs, the force like a cannon ball. "One of them was how to take the initiative."

Just like old times, I found myself flying down the dark corridors of a desolate cram school. Medaka didn't let up after her first strike. Even as I was tumbling she had sped up, keeping pace with me as I flew. Despite the fact that I was tumbling head over heels, she continued to rain blows down on me, her arms flashing pale white in what little moonlight managed to penetrate the dark hall.

That was fine though. I had spent a century and a half besides Kiss Shot, and she hadn't been lying when she had warned me that there would be many who would be seeking our lives. There hadn't been a period longer than a month where the two of us hadn't had a battle to the death. That kind of experience added up over the decades.

"I don't know when it started," Medaka continued, not sounding the least bit winded as we fought. Even as she spoke she managed to snake a kick out, and I realized that she hadn't bothered to remove her high heels as a three inch spike drove into my chest. It was impressive, fighting on stilettos like that in the dark without missing a beat. "I can only think it began with the Flask Plan."

"What did?" I asked, sounding casual as my flesh knit up. I disentangled, a move which involved me bending myself in half backwards, my spine snapping temporarily as I forced the unnatural contortion. It let me get my feet under me, and a second later I was up, not even a rain of plaster to mark where I had punched into the roof once more. It was an entry as smooth as a professional diver slipping into a pool.

"The fighting," Medaka admitted, before she too joined me in the cramped confines between ceiling and roof. Spider like, I moved, and though Medaka couldn't bend her limbs into the same angles as I did, she had the grace of a cat as she pounced on me. "You and Kikaijima were right, you know. I never could understand others. For the longest time, before high school, I tried my best, always imitating, always trying. But no matter how hard I worked, there was always a barrier between me and others that I just couldn't break through."

"So?" I prompted her, and this time I managed to come out ahead in the exchange of blows, knocking her downwards and back into a classroom. A second later I was dodging as Medaka began to use the broken desks as projectile weapons. I scrabbled for space.

"Then came the Flask Plan," Medaka continued, and I heard a wall shatter beneath me as she managed to track me even out of sight. "For the first time ever, I met other Abnormals. You know how we all were: distant, lonely. It wasn't just me that had a wall between myself and the rest of humanity. We were all so different, that none of us could ever really be a part of the rest of the world."

I slipped through a hole in the ceiling, and dropped right down into the space between the third and the fourth floor, buying myself time. Medaka continued, though I doubted she hadn't caught my attempted ruse.

"It was amazing!" she admitted, her voice fond with reminiscent. "I was finally able to understand someone! First Takachiho-sempai, then Miyakonojou! They were people every bit as different as I was, who I could actually understand. After them, the Class Minus Thirteen. All the while fighting, all the while in conflict. I was even able to understand Kumagawa then. I wasn't able to do that before, back in middle school. The only thing I could do then was hit him until he promised to leave. But when we fought again, I was able to understand his feelings, and I was able to make him understand my own as well!"

I had intended to stay silent, mostly so I could sneak the next attack in, when a hand shattered through the floor, wrapping around my throat and wrenching me out of my hiding place. No longer needing to keep quiet, I choked out, "Good for you."

"No," Medaka shook her head, "it really wasn't." Then she gave me an uppercut that sent me through the roof in a spray of plaster and steel.

I came to the end of my roll, shaking my head as I recovered my bearings. My body ached, and it took all my efforts to fix my clothing. My regeneration was working, but it was sluggish, barely greater than that of a human's healing ability at this point. Still, I forced myself upright, showing none of the pain that was coursing through me.

Medaka appeared through the hole I had left, leaping as easily as if she was walking up a stair. Her hair was ruffled, and there were gaping holes torn into her outfit. The side of her short skirt was torn, her stockings were running in places, and the already minimal covering of her blouse had crossed the line into indecent displaying that at some point Medaka had started disdaining bras entirely. She still wore panties at least, though they seemed to have gone even skimpier than the ones she had worn in her youth.

Come to think of it, it did tend to stay with the fashion of the times. Maybe I was just old fashioned for missing the days when under clothing was held in higher regards then it was now.

"Then came that day," Medaka continued, her expression stern as she spoke. Despite her words, she was still in all business mode, her combat senses ready and sharp. "The day when I looked down on you and realized I couldn't understand you. I had thought that cryptogram, the riddle, was so simple. The others didn't seem to have any trouble with it after all, though you were right in that only the two ever did figure it out. I tried to brush it off and tell you not to worry about it, and you got upset, saying how it shouldn't count."

She paused, and maybe expecting me show some kind of response to her memory, offer some kind of rebuttal. I had none. Honestly, I could barely keep myself standing at this point. When I had nothing to say, she continued.

"I remember thinking that if you were so upset then you should have just completed the riddle instead of wasting time," she shook her head, confessing just what the thought process was that had begun our entire riff. "I was confused, wondering how someone who had stood by me for so long, who had been so competent so often, could be stopped by such a simple thing. And so I came to the conclusion that you must not have been that competent at all, that there must have been something I missed, something I hadn't understood which would explain why you weren't able to do something so simple." She met my eyes directly. "So I decided that if you couldn't keep up, it would be better to dismiss you rather than have a time come when you would fail later."

"Are you going somewhere with this?" I asked, trying to goad her. If she kept talking, she might realize just what state I really was in.

"Yes," Medaka nodded, though she began to walk towards me, preparing to engage in battle again. "Right afterwards, before I had even had a chance to get changed, you appeared and challenged me." She crouched, preparing herself. "Zenkichi, that was the happiest moment of my life."

She launched herself, and I managed to dodge the first blow before the second one caught me in the diaphragm.

"I had finally begun to understand people," she continued, her voice rising. "But it only happened when I fought them! And here was you, Zenkichi, the one who had been with me the longest but whom I still couldn't understand, finally preparing to fight me! I was so happy! If I couldn't understand you without fighting, then I wanted you to be an enemy! I wanted us to battle, to face off against each other wholeheartedly! It would be the moment where I finally connected to you, where the two of us could finally stand at the same level!"

A kick I never even noticed caught me, sending me flying backwards against the roof. I slammed back first into the tree, the only piece of the cram school that had changed. It had been unusually large before, but after a hundred and sixty years it had branched into something gigantic. Still, it didn't look healthy. It might have lasted this long, but it was still growing through a school. Its roots couldn't find proper nutrients without soil, and it was most likely old for its species. Some of the wood behind me was rotting already, and it exploded in splinters of moist wood.

"But I had forgotten," Medaka continued, taking several quick steps before breaking into a run. "You weren't an Abnormal. You didn't think like one. You had never been lonely like I had been, you had never had problems connecting like I had. You didn't need battle to understand someone. You proved well enough just how well you knew me, after all. I was so caught up in the chance to finally meet you, so overjoyed to be able to fight you, that I didn't realize that for you what was happening was completely different."

"Before the Flask Plan, I was always scared," she admitted, closing quick. "I never considered myself right. I would always ask myself, 'Was there a better way?', 'Did I really do anything to help them?', 'Did I really think of every possibility?', 'Did I belittle someone's suffering?', 'Did I simply step over something I didn't notice?', or 'Has helping people become a simple routine?'"

She launched herself once she closed half the distance between us, flipping through the air. She landed crouched against the wood of the tree, pinning me between her legs. At some point during the jump she had removed her shoes, and with a quick move she wrenched on of my hand to the side, and then used the spike to impale me through the wrist, pinning the limb down. The repeat on the other side was just as quick.

The similarities of the fight now and so long ago were not lost on me. First we had thrown each other through the roof and then we had left the other crucified to this very same tree. I wondered if I looked hard enough if I would find the same spot where I had left Medaka here all those years ago.

"I don't know when it happened," Medaka admitted, stepping back to observe her handiwork. "But at some point, during all those battles, I had stopped asking myself those questions. There had been a better way. I really hadn't done anything to help you. I hadn't even considered the other possibilities. I had spat on your suffering. And I hadn't just stepped over your pain; I had trampled it without even realizing it. Helping people wasn't even a routine anymore. It was just something to do between the fighting."

Satisfied that I was immobile, Medaka launched one of her ultimate techniques at me. It had been years since I had born witness to the 'Medaka Kurokami Second Trump Card'.

The 'Strict Girl/Cute Girl Switch'.

"Zenkichi," she cried, all her sternness disappearing, her expression changing to something fragile, to something gentle, tears in her eyes as she launched herself at me to cling tightly in a desperate embrace, "I'm so, SO, sorry!"

She followed it almost immediately with her third special skill.

'Overflowing Love'.

"I love you, Zenkichi," she told me before she kissed me, desperately clinging to me as she put more emotion into the act then I had ever seen her give the same skill. The last time I think she had used the ability was when she had convinced Kikaijima to treasure her life more than money.

Huh. I really hadn't seen this coming at all, actually.

The embrace stretched on, as did the kiss. Medaka's tears, salty and clear unlike the ones I shed these days, wetted my cheeks and dripped down onto the collar of my white hoody, staining them dark with dampness. I couldn't tell how long it lasted, but I found myself succumbing to it, even briefly. I relaxed, let my eyes close, and felt the warmth of the woman I still loved even after all these years.

And when the kiss finally ended, when Medaka pulled away slightly, pulling back to put some space between us, I opened my eyes.

With Medaka's hopeful gaze on me, I gave her my response.

"You love humanity, Medaka," I reminded her, though I did it gently. "And I'm not human."

"I know that," she told me, without flinching. "It's been a long time since we were kids together, Zenkichi. I think I can love all of humanity plus one, if that's what it takes."

"But it's because I'm not human that I don't want your love, Medaka." Again, despite my blunt words, Medaka remained firm. "I'm of the Kai now, a vampire. The Kai don't want humanities understanding, and to vampires humans are just food. What we want is humanity's belief, to be dreaded, to be feared, to be shunned, to be revered, to be respected, to be hated, to be loathed, and to be worshipped."

It was the truth of the Kai, one I had learned years ago through violent confrontation after violent confrontation. It was a truth I had embraced over the years, welcomed into me. It was why I had never considered Medaka a monster, not truly, even when she had been so different. She had always tried to be a member of humanity even when she couldn't understand it.

The Kai weren't human. And neither was I.

"I knew that," Medaka admitted, pulling a handkerchief free from her torn outfit and drying her eyes calmly. "It was something you've made abundantly clear over the years." A small smile graced her lips. "I think you single handedly destroyed an entire genre. Nobody dares write about your species anymore, not with fear of the 'Curse of the Vampire' coming to find them."

"The proudest achievement of my life," I admitted, letting myself smile slightly at the accumulation of my life's work. Kiss Shot had never understood my obsession with finding writers like that, but she had always indulged me with a shake of her head and a whimsical smile.

"After you left, the Student Council began to have more encounters with the Kai. We even met a strange man once, who said he knew you," Medaka continued, shaking her head slightly. "He certainly did a lot to help us understand."

"You look excited," I said, a small smile forming. "Did something good happen?"

Medaka smiled slightly as well when I quoted Oshino's catch phrase. "He wasn't too surprised to learn what had happened to you. He told us a great deal of what you had gone through, though. Knowing what you endured helped explain a great deal to us, back then."

"If you knew all this, then why did you go through with this confession?" I asked her, referring to her earlier use of the two trump cards.

"Even if you don't want my love," Medaka admitted, backing away slowly, "I wanted you to know that I still loved you. It took a long time, but eventually I learned what it really meant to love another. It's why I can say it truthfully, why I wanted you to hear it at least once from me and know I'm being sincere: I love all of humanity. And I love you too, Zenkichi."

"All these years, and you're still doing unnecessary things, aren't you Medaka?" I asked. It seems that some people never changed, not when it came right down to it.

"Of course!" Medaka declared, puffing her chest as she did so. She didn't even seem to care about the indecent state of her clothes, but then Medaka had never had much in the way of body shame. "Which is why I thank you for allowing me to say my piece, Zenkichi. Now, pull yourself free, and let us continue. I wasn't able to understand your feelings before, but now I can. Please, allow me to share the burdens I couldn't before. Unburden all your worries on me. I swear to you that this time I will make you happy."

Ah, Medaka. Even after all this time, you still won't give up, will you? Still trying to bear the weight of the world alone, even going so far as to try and shoulder the worries of a vampire?

Still trying to fight me too, it seemed.

I considered it, for a moment. The decision I made so long ago. Even after all these years, I had never forgotten it. There was still a knife in my heart, where the knowledge that Medaka had never been able to understand my feelings dwelt. And it looked like that same unhappiness dwelt in Medaka as well, where the knowledge that Medaka had never been able to make me happy lingered.

But no. It seemed that despite Medaka's optimism, those two wounds wouldn't be able to be closed so easily.

"I can't," I told her, glancing out from beneath where my hood covered my eyes, a wry smile forming.

"Still holding that grudge, even after all these years, Zenkichi?" Medaka asked, a bitter smile of her own forming.

"No, it's not that I won't," I admitted, a small huff of laughter coming out. "It's that I CAN'T. It seems I've finally come to the end of my regeneration. It looks like this is the last life I have left."

Medaka went still, her eyes narrowing as she looked at me closer. Her eyes narrowed as she realized that I wasn't being contrary, that beneath my pristine clothes the wounds of the fight were lingering.

"What's going on?" she asked, concern beginning to show in her voice.

I laughed softly. "Did you know, Medaka, that the average life of a vampire is only around two hundred years? It's not that their bodies die, or that they come to a natural end. It's just that they grow tired of life. In the end, boredom is the greatest killer of vampires, no matter how hard human's try." I slumped down, my smile diminishing. "Though the exorcists do their best anyway."

"No," Medaka denied, already understanding what I was saying. "No. You have a wife, and a daughter. You wouldn't think of leaving them behind."

"My daughter died five years ago," I told her softly. "We had always been hunted. How couldn't we? Kiss Shot and I were the two strongest of vampires, and our daughter was every bit as fearsome. But even the strongest can fall with enough preparation. She was so young, only a hundred and twenty, but in the end she was killed."

"Only a hundred and twenty," Medaka repeated, though it sounded like she was merely parroting the words rather than noting how odd it was to consider over a century to still be young.

"As for Kiss Shot," I shrugged. "She had been five hundred when we met. She had been looking for a place to die herself when I found her. She managed to cling onto life for over a century and a half more when I joined her, but she was nearly seven hundred; three and a half times longer than most vampires ever dream of living. In the end, even though I was with her the loss of our daughter was just too much, and she finally decided to end it."

I hadn't even noticed. There was always a bond between master and servant vampires. It allowed the master to control their servants to a certain degree. Kiss Shot had never used that bond on me before, so I never even suspected that she was using it on me then. For over a year, she had kept me from noticing that she had stopped feeding. Then, once her regeneration had been diminished enough, she had waited until I was sleeping, left me a note, and stepped into the noon sun.

"No," Medaka said again, shaking her head. "You said they had just gone ahead. You said you were going to be catching up…"

"I'm only a hundred and eighty," I admitted, my tone slightly wry. "But there's probably a two hundred and twenty year old vampire getting ready to end themselves, so I'm sure the average will stay the same."

"No," Medaka repeated, realizing just how serious I was. "No. No. No." Her legs collapsed beneath her and she sprawled onto the ground, tears again coursing down her cheek.

"I stopped feeding the same day Kiss Shot died," I admitted, struggling feebly against the heels in my wrists. "It looks like I finally reached the point where my body won't recover anymore." I gave Medaka another small smile. "Though I hadn't planned on meeting you here. Then again," I sighed, "I suppose it is fitting that we meet again like this."

After all, horror was being faced with the inevitable. It was despair which couldn't be fought against. It was the surrender to the forces which would never relent, which would never stop, and wouldn't even notice the pain they caused.

And horror had always been my genre.

"No," Medaka repeated, shaking her head, tears flying to splatter on the roof around her. "Not now. Not like this! I finally got to meet you again! I finally got to understand you! It can't end like this! There must be something more you want to do, there must be something else! What do you want, Zenkichi! I'll get it for you, anything, just don't do this, not now!"

"What I want," I said softly, "is to watch a sunrise, right here, on this roof."

"I hate this place," Medaka whispered, glaring down at the building she herself had preserved on the off chance hope that someday I might return. And it had worked too. It was thanks to this place that we had met again, even though it would have probably been better if we didn't. "You were right about it. This place is cursed. It just ruins things. There are no happy endings here, it just makes everyone unhappy."

It was childish, trying to blame the cram school for everything, but Medaka didn't seem to have anything else to put her anger on. She struck at the roof, causing spider web fractures to spread out beneath her with every blow.

"If you keep that up you're going to be visiting the fourth floor pretty quickly," I noted from where I was still crucified to the tree.

"How can you just hang there and say things like that!" Medaka snapped at me, glaring in anger. "How can you just give up! That's not the Zenkichi I know! That's not the only person who ever defeated me!"

"I'm tired, Medaka," I told her softly. "I outlived my best friend, my daughter, and my wife. There wasn't even enough of her left for me to bury. Don't you remember? I'm just a normal," I snorted, knowing that I had long since left that title behind. "I get discouraged, I get angry. I give up at times."

"There must be something," Medaka protested, desperately trying to find some way to sway me from my decision. I shook my head.

"Even if there was, I'm too damaged now to recover normally," I pointed out. "I would have to feed in order to survive. Probably about one person's worth. Tell me, Medaka, would you be willing to provide a victim for me? Would you throw away one of the humans you love in order to save a monster who will only kill again later? I'm a vampire. I have killed thousands over the years. Sometimes to feed, sometimes in self-defense, but it doesn't change the fact that I am an enemy of humanity."

I closed my eyes, shaking my head. No, it was fine that I die now. I had lived twice as long as I could have expected as human. It had been a hard life, full of violence and death, but I had Kiss Shot and my daughter for a time. I had been happy.

Besides, I still had my promise to keep to Kiss Shot, no, to Shinobu. Long ago, when I had first forced her into that twisted shadow of an existence I had told her…

"If today you die then my life lasts no longer then today. If tomorrow you live, then I too will live on."

My eyes snapped open as I heard those words, so similar to the oath I had given. Warm arms wrapped around me, and I looked down in shock as Medaka once more hugged herself to me.

"What are you doing, Medaka?" I asked, my tone sharper than it had been all night. Her head was tucked into my shoulder as she pressed herself against me, pushing as much of her body to mine as she could.

"You're not the only one who has lived long enough," she told me, her voice muffled. "I've spent a long time doing everything I could. I helped so many people. But no matter how hard I tried, you were right. I always knew that I couldn't help the one person that I should have. You made yourself special, no," she stopped correcting herself and shaking her head violently against my shoulder. "You already were special! You just helped me realize that."

Still keeping her face buried in my shoulder, she tightened her grip on me. "So now it's my turn. You gave me a reason to live, long ago. You gave me the purpose of my life. So now it's time for me to return the favor. If you need a life to live, then you can take mine! It might make me a monster, but you found a way to return to being human again, long ago. I'll just have to find the same way, and then I'll bring both of us back to being human! And if I can't, well, at least I can properly apologize to my oldest friend for failing him."

Oh, Medaka. Oh, you had no idea what you were saying. If you thought me dying was hard, then you had no idea how horrible going back to being human will be. And if you couldn't, then you would be forced to face the same truth I did, that being a vampire meant feeding on the humanity you so loved.

"Let go of me," I told her harshly, trying to shake her loose. Unfortunately, it seems we had both done our jobs too well. I was too weak with hunger to heal, and she had damaged me too much for me to properly fight anymore. "You really will die if you hold on like that! I've seen the scorch marks a vampire makes when they burn under the sun!"

"If you thought of here as the place to die, then so can I," Medaka insisted, tightening her grip even further. Stupid, stupid, stubborn, intractable Medaka! For the first time in a long time I felt like smacking my hand against my head at the foolishness of my oldest friend. She always did try her best in the worst of ways.

I closed my eyes, and grit my teeth. It was still three or four hours until dawn. Medaka had positioned herself so that her neck was right in front of me and I could smell her, the scent of musk and sweat and lavender, and the tang of her blood, so thick after our battle that it was almost like a physical force caressing my nose.

A flash of memory crossed my mind, of a young man and a maimed vampire, alone in a dark park.

A memory of a human offering their neck to a beautiful monster.

Oh, Shinobu. If you were still here you'd laugh at the irony.

It was still three hours until dawn. I would have to hold out, ignore just how hungry I was, and just how warm Medaka felt. I would have to find some way to convince her, to force her off of me, to get away from her.

If I didn't, I might just end up killing the woman I loved as I died.

If I didn't, I might just end up turning the woman I loved into a monster.

Or, worst of all, if I didn't, I might just find myself living again in Medaka's Shadow.


End file.
